tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68400288158751036552018-12-02T17:11:45.129-08:00BLOG ABOUT DIGITAL MARKETINGArya Wirarajanoreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-69524913409832909062018-08-13T21:22:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:55.877-07:00Digital Marketing Made Simple <h2>Digital Marketing Made Simple&nbsp;</h2><br />Digital marketing is typically defined as marketing efforts that involve electronic devices or focus on online platforms, and the need for digital marketing cannot be ignored.<br /><br />Americans today spend so much time plugged in and using devices that digital is the best opportunity to engage audiences and attract new prospects. In fact, the average American spends over 12 hours each day using electronic media, and that includes nearly five hours watching live television, nearly an hour and a half on their smartphones, and even two and three-quarter hours listening to the radio. When you look at numbers like these, it�s impossible to deny the need for digital marketing.<br /><br />So what exactly is digital marketing and how can you create an effective strategy for a business? Today�s simple guide will tell you everything you need to know<br /><br /><h3>Understanding the Components of Digital Marketing</h3><br />Digital marketing covers a wide range of media and strategies that are designed to help you identify, engage, and convert prospects in the digital sphere.<br /><br />Digital marketing efforts can have a variety of goals, but the most common ones include increasing traffic to your website, driving sales, gaining important customer insights, solidifying your brand�s image, increasing brand awareness, building relationships and trust with your audience, and providing something of value to prospects and customers.<br /><br />For most marketers, efforts are concentrated on online channels, and the several major tools and platforms of digital marketing that we�ll focus on in more detail later are:<br /><br />Search Engine Optimization<br />Content marketing<br />Email marketing<br />Social media marketing<br />Search engine marketing<br />Take Stock of Your Digital Marketing Assets<br />Take Stock of Your Digital Marketing Assets<br />Each digital marketing platform has a number of tools that marketers can use to achieve their goals, and these are sometimes referred to as assets.<br /><br /><h4>These assets can be divided into three categories: owned, paid, and earned:</h4><br />Owned<br /><br />Owned assets are ones that you create and manage, and they include blogs, websites, social media profiles, emails, brochures, and other forms of written content. These assets provide digital marketers with a great level of control because you're in charge of how they look, how they're optimized, and what audience they're designed to reach.<br /><br />Paid<br /><br />As the name implies, paid assets are ones you pay for, and they include banner ads and displays, social media ads, pay-per-click, and other online advertising campaigns. Although these assets cost more than owned ones, they can be very effective at driving qualified leads to your site, expanding the reach of your owned assets, and there's a measure of guarantee that they�ll help you reach your goals.<br /><br />Earned<br /><br />You don�t often have to pay for or create earned assets, but you do have to work for them through customer and industry interactions. Examples of earned assets include product reviews, media coverage, testimonials, guest blogs and other content contributions, and social media posts that others share.<br /><br /><br />A Closer Look at SEO<br />Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a huge role in digital marketing because it�s all about increasing rankings and making sure your site is visible in order to drive traffic.<br /><br />For instance, if you ran an independent cell phone retail and e-commerce store and were having to compete with the likes of Apple, then SEO would be your ticket to making sure when a prospect Googled iPhones for sale, your website appeared near the top of the first search engine result page.<br /><br />SEO can be divided into two categories: on-page and off-page.<br /><br />On-page -Involves the technical optimizations that you perform on your own website, and it includes things like creating engaging content, optimizing content and page elements with keywords, improving site speed, creating internal links, using the right URL structure, dividing content using headings, and using title tags.<br />Off-page - Mainly focuses on building a strong pool of backlinks to your website, because this tells search engines that your site is authoritative, relevant, and valuable, which is important for higher rankings.<br />Check out our new membership platform that connects you with industry and opportunities<br />Content Marketing<br />Content is the bread and butter of digital marketing. It�s how you engage and excite prospects, reach new audiences, provide valuable information, and keep your audience informed. The types of content you create and the topics you explore will depend entirely on your audience, but the important thing is that it�s well written or produced, top-quality, authoritative, relevant, and of interest to your audience. Some of the most popular and important types of content include:<br /><br />Web page content<br />Blogs<br />Emails<br />Infographics<br />Whitepapers<br />E-books<br />Videos<br />Podcasts<br />How-to guides<br />Email Marketing<br />Email Marketing<br />Email may not be the most novel method of digital communication, but it�s still one of the most effective when it comes to marketing.<br /><br />For one thing, email is ubiquitous: there are 3.7 billion email user s around the globe, so it�s pretty much guaranteed that you can reach your prospects through this channel. Moreover, email marketing is effective, and has one of the highest ROIs of any marketing effort, with each dollar spent bringing a return of $44.<br /><br />The first step in email marketing is to amass your email list and to get permission from prospects. Next comes creating email content, which can include promotions, product updates, newsletters, videos, links to your latest blog posts and publications, and more.<br /><br />Once you�ve created the content, it�s important to segment your email list based on things like demographics, purchasing history, and buyer journey stage (more on that later), and to target and personalize emails based on those factors. You'll also have to decide how often you want to correspond with prospects because while some people don�t mind getting daily updates from brands, others will respond better if they hear from you less frequently.<br /><br />Social Media Marketing<br />81% of Americans use social media, and more and more brands realize that platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram are valuable resources to find and engage prospects.<br /><br />To start, locate the platforms that your audience uses the most, and then create profiles for two to four of those networks. Here are some ways you can use social media as part of your digital marketing strategy:<br /><br />Identify new prospects<br />Engage your audience<br />Share the content you�ve created<br />Participate in conversations<br />Respond to customer complaints and queries<br />Promote news about your brand<br />Advertise<br />Search Engine Marketing<br />Search Engine Marketing<br />Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to paid online marketing efforts that are designed to increase visibility and drive traffic to your website.<br /><br />Examples of SEM include social media ads, sponsored posts, display ads (such as before a video), native ads, and paid search, such as pay-per-click, banner ads, remarketing, and Google shopping ads.<br /><br />The important things to remember when creating these types of ads is to optimize them with keywords and negative keywords, include a call to action, create the ad with your target audience in mind, and target the ads to reach the right prospects.<br /><br />The Importance of Measuring Results<br />Now that we�ve discussed the different tools of the trade, it�s time to talk about another crucial element of digital marketing: metrics and analysis.<br /><br />The great thing about online digital marketing is that everything can be tracked, measured, and tweaked to constantly ensure the best results.<br /><br />For instance, when you post on Facebook, you can use the site�s analytics to measure engagement, shares, comments, and other performance metrics. If, for instance, a particular post was shared more than others, garnered more comments, and created more engagement, then you could analyze why that post was successful to reproduce those good results. The same is true with your emails, blogs, website, SEM, and other strategies.<br /><br />One important tool that should be mentioned here is A/B testing, which allows you to test two nearly identical versions of the same piece of content (such as a landing page, an ad, or an email) to see which one performs best. That way, you can make sure you�re always using the most effective versions of your content.<br /><br />Integrating Buyer Journey<br />Integrating Buyer Journey Information into Marketing Messages<br />As digital marketers, it�s important to recognize that people�s online behavior is influenced by where they are in the buyer�s journey, and you should tailor content based on a prospect�s stage.<br /><br />The buyer�s journey is divided into three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. The awareness stage is when the buyer becomes aware of a problem, and content should be general, informative, and not at all promotional. During consideration, buyers are researching multiple products and trying to determine which ones are a good fit, and content should focus on how your products can solve problems.<br /><br />The final stage is the decision stage, and this is where content can get more branded and more promotional, but while still focusing on solving problems.<br /><br /><h2>Conclusion</h2>Digital marketing is the only way for modern businesses to maintain visibility in a world where people spend the majority of their days interacting with devices and spending hours online.<br /><br />There are many aspects to digital marketing, and creating an effective strategy is about using all the different tools, creating content that will drive engagement, and optimize your website and your content with SEO best practices.<br /><br />However, the content you create should be tailored and personalized for different segments of your audience, and you should always track and measure your efforts to ensure success.<br /><br /><br />SOURCE :&nbsp;<a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/digital-marketing-made-simple-a-guide" target="_blank">digitalmarketinginstitute.com</a>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-4737413059218117002018-07-11T06:18:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:56.520-07:0010 Trends That Will Reshape Digital Marketing in 2018 and Beyond<h2>10 Trends That Will Reshape Digital Marketing in 2018 and Beyond</h2>Today, digital trends seem to be fashionably altering too rapidly to keep pace with. What's not keeping up is an organization's agility to adapt. Social platforms have made it imperative for marketers to be the first or be scrolled out and in the fusillade of messaging, a consumer trolls down any that is not unique or irrelevant.<br /><br />10 important trends will define the marketing framework of organizations. Five of which are in the organization process framework and five are emerging trends driven by consumer preferences. To be able to ride this hyper-wave, we need to ask ourselves a few questions... everyday!<br /><br />Transforming a legacy organization to a dynamic one requires a fundamental change in thinking, structure and process evolutions. The more visionary ones that lead the way will be the change makers, large or small in size irrespective.<br /><br /><br />Five Organizational Trends That Will Impact Digital Marketing Frameworks<br /><br />Structure on Demand - Legacy organization structures are a bane to its agility. Unless the entire internal eco-system is networked to remove all hurdles and expedite the process from idea to end delivery and service management, the threat of getting disrupted hangs sword on its head. Organizations will be forced to create "structure on demand" teams that emerge and dissolve to needs without the baggage of the old-fashioned matrix reporting hierarchies. Marketing will no longer be the sole ownership of the marketers but will be split into specialized parts being led by experts.<br /><br />Leader on Demand - A 'Structure on Demand' will also require 'Leaders on Demand'. Leadership too will become more project based than a fixed organization structure based since solutions at any point in time will require a very different set of leadership skills suited to a particular project. The concept of a universal leadership will loose its appeal in the coming years and we are beginning to see this trend in the more progressive marketing organizations.<br /><br />New Marketing Roles - With the core of marketing shifting from brand-centricity to unique Customer Experience (CX) creation, traditional designations of digital marketing and channel marketing etc will start to disappear. Marketing teams will be led by CX Managers, Omnichannel Managers, Content Marketers &amp; Design Managers. Digital by itself will no longer be a role as it become ubiquitous in the organisation.<br /><br />The Marketing FlexiForce: The future will be run by young professionals, especially in fast changing markets like India. And these young bees choose flexibility and freedom over fixed pay and formula. Ubiquitous digital makes remote talent leverage possible and allows for speed of innovation and delivery making marketing super agile. Transcending time zones keeps the engine running 24x7, a new expectation that customers are demanding.<br /><br />Automated Marketing - Automation in marketing platforms and programmatic deliveries will also be complemented with automated CRM processes relieving organizations of its dependence on human timelines and errors. Visionary organizations are building strong capabilities in automating the infrastructure for production and logistics to support this speed-need of marketing teams. Stronger inter-dependencies will be established between departments forcing co-marketing KPIs across functions.<br /><br />Five Trends That Will Reshape Digital Marketing and the Brand-Customer Equation<br /><br />No two global markets are in the same level of digital maturity and so reflect trends unique to each. However, they do converge at some level on customer choices of the 3 Vs - video, voice and visual. This is of particular significance in lower literacy geographies and multi-lingual needs that drive new trends in search and social platforms.<br /><br />Mobile Video on Demand (VoD)<br /><br />VoD is now a no-brainer. Over a billion hours of video consumption daily by Youtube viewers, over 8 billion videos by Facebookers and with equally staggering numbers on Twitter and Snapchat, it is no surprise that over 87% of online marketers use video content. But the next wave of VoD will be the increase of what I call "RFC Content" I.e. Relevant, Forwardable &amp; Commercializable Content. Much of what we see is a churn out of the old advertising style with tear-shedding emotional messages. The rise of this medium will be in geometric proportions. Especially in the inner markets, over-riding language and literacy barriers propelled by increase in mobile connections will see a rise in Product and Conversational Content; and Commerce embedded social content taking over.<br /><br />Voice as the Primary Tool for Search and Social Media<br /><br />Perhaps not fully leveraged all through 2018, but this will clearly become a growing trend in the near future. Human lethargy to type as well as lower literacy levels in inner markets will catalyze this shift. Marketers will be wiser to create voice based interactive modules that can engage users better than verbose text to provide information. So better fine tune that voice of yours as you begin to leave voice-prints all over the net!<br /><br />Visual Search Over Text<br /><br />Image search, together with voice search, will ease the tedious task and errors of type search. The Power of Google Lens and its immense application potential will open up great possibilities in sectors such as Travel, Healthcare, Education, Fashion to name a few. Marketers must collaborate with leaders in visual search tools to leverage this for their brands early and even participate in its Beta stage.<br /><br />Augmented and Interactive Video Group Chats<br /><br />Still in its nascent stage, this trend will be a definite enhancement of chat platforms that are currently very text restrictive. And as voice and video grow in search and social use, this natural extension will bring like-minded social groups closer together and creating stronger but closed peer to peer influence groups. Marketers will need to create data access points to weave into these micro group chats and use extensive AI to leverage conversations to their advantage.<br /><br />Customer Becomes the New Big Influencer<br /><br />Already a trend in the West, the trend of customer-certified products will rise and brand claims will lose relevance on hard sell promotions. Social influencers are already impacting purchase decision amongst the netizens and the credibility they bring steadily peels off the delusive claims of celebrity endorsers. And now, customer influencers are beginning to add a whole new dimension of post purchase review authenticity. Organizations must work on managing long term customer relations to ensure these brand ambassadors are active throughout their product use journey.<br /><br />AI will play a critical and ever increasing role in 2018 and beyond and marketers must invest and ride these trends effectively. Simply embedding the features to their digital assets will yield little result and ROIs will be under the scanner. Marketers are getting overly swayed by content storytelling. That's great for a few awards if it tugs at the heart but smart digital presence has to bear concrete business results and marketers who seamlessly integrate the organizational fluidity with agile innovative customer solutions will wear the crown and hold the shield with pride.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-81995240726904299612018-07-11T06:17:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:56.983-07:00What is the Marketing Concept and Why It Keeps Winning<h2>What is the Marketing Concept and Why It Keeps Winning</h2><br />The marketing concept gave birth to the modern marketing profession and its principles hold just as true today just as they did when they were first codified in the mid-1950s. In the following article, we�ll trace the evolution of the marketing concept and look forward to see what it may grow into in the future.<br /><br /><br />What does marketing concept mean?<br />It is the philosophy that a company should produce things that its customers want/need, then convince them to buy it. Give your customers what they want, and they will buy it� Seems like a pretty obvious thing right? In reality, it took over 200 years of trial and error to develop this concept and we�re still perfecting it. In simple terms,<br /><br /><br /><br />The Origins and Development of the Marketing Concept<br />Economics, marketing, and business are social advancements. As these systems grow in complexity and efficiency they allow humans to accomplish more and cooperate better on an ever-growing scale. The marketing concept is one of the most important elements of these systems.<br /><br /><br /><br />There were 3 major business philosophies that came before the marketing concept. Companies use these philosophies to understand the marketplace and their role in it. Each has had its heyday and then evolved into another more practical iteration. While we can see traces of the marketing concept all the way back to the late 1700�s, the true timeline begins in the early 20th century.<br /><br /><br /><br />1920s (The Production Concept): �If you make it, somebody will buy it.� This philosophy was based on Say�s Law, from French economist Jean � Baptiste Say. The law theorizes that production creates demand and assumes that you�ll sell as many units as you can produce. An example of this in action would be Ford during the time period, they streamlined their production process and in turn increased sales.<br />1930s (The Product Concept): �The better you make it, the more people will buy it� As its name implies, the product concept is product-centric. It assumes that the consumer will be able to discern a higher quality product, appreciate its craftsmanship, and happily purchase it. A business operating with this mentality will focus on constantly improving its products regardless of the improvements� necessity.<br />1940s (The Selling Concept): �If you make it, you need to get people to buy it� This theory is all about making a product first and then figuring out how to sell it. The product doesn�t change based on input from the market, the market should change based on the output from the sales team. It puts a lot of undue pressure on a sales team if a product they are trying to sell is not wanted or needed.<br />1950s (The Marketing Concept): �You only make it if people will want to buy it� This is the theory that listens. It is completely focused on finding out what the customer needs and then creating products that satisfy those needs. The reason why this approach is used today so much more than the others is simply that it works.<br /><br /><br />The Marketing Concept in the Digital Age<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We live in a world today where all viable startups are born by analyzing and predicting the needs of their potential customers. Once the needs are understood a startup finds ways to satisfy those needs through technology.<br /><br /><br /><br />Take Airbnb for example. Through trials and heavy market analysis, they were able to identify that not only did people have space they were willing to rent, there were people who wanted to rent it. They simply sold these two groups a way to conduct this exchange efficiently. This peer to peer rental market was new and exciting, but Airbnb only scaled when the market dictated that it should. This is a prime example of how modern companies use the marketing concept to create new revenue streams.<br /><br /><br /><br />The marketing concept gave birth to ideas like consultive selling: The process of interviewing your customers, uncovering their needs/wants and suggesting a solution. Nothing matters except the specific conditions and problems that face that particular customer. This is extremely effective because if a solution is found through this method then everyone in the exchange wins. It promotes transparency both during and after the sales process and leads to higher levels of repeat business. The marketing concept works great as long as the customers being analyzed don�t want things that hurt the social good or destroy the environment.<br /><br /><br /><br />The rise of the Societal Marketing Concept<br /><br /><br />So what do you do if after you conduct your market analysis you find that the people want a product that is unethical or will cause damage to the environment? Should you still produce and sell it to them? It�s a tough question.<br /><br /><br /><br />The societal marketing concept takes the marketing concept to the next level by expanding the pool of information gathered during analysis stage to include the needs of society and of the environment. It�s the reason why we don�t let cigarette companies market to children. Sure they�d sell a bunch more cigarettes, but it would not be a good thing for society as a whole.<br /><br /><br /><br />Something strange happens when companies start to include society and the environment into their market analysis, they start to make products that are good for all three. A company like Tom�s shoes is a great example. They make shoes that people love to buy. They donate a pair of shoes to someone in need for everyone that they sell, and the use environmentally sound production methods. Striving for products that people want while simultaneously helping enrich society and the environment should be the goal of modern companies.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br /><br />Final Thoughts<br /><br /><br />We have come a long way from just seeing how much of a product we could produce as fast as possible. The modern marketing concept evolved out of the realization that the consumer is the most important element of the marketing equation. While we are not there yet by any means, we are moving closer to an age where the environment and society will be consistently added to that equation as well. Marketing may be our best shot at saving the planet.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-76702054476498792352018-07-11T06:16:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:57.441-07:007 Essentials for Any 2018 Digital Marketing Strategy<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Heebo, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; text-align: center;">Digital marketing strategy is crucial to most modern businesses. Is yours following these best practices?</span></h2><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #212529; font-family: Heebo, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">In today's tech landscape, a solid digital marketing strategy has become the CMO's new bread and butter; the only question now is how to best serve it up. Your business's success depends on the right type of strategy, and the right type of strategy can in turn lead to higher sales, new customers, and long-term growth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Traditional online advertising is a thing of the past. Why? Bottom line, it's more annoying than effective. One study found that 18- to 34-year-olds are likely to ignore online banner and digital ads more than those on TV and radio or in newspapers. What's more, 54 percent of internet users don't click on banner ads simply because they don't trust them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's now a CMO's job to stay ahead of the digital marketing curve, keep up-to-date on trends, and break through the clutter. Here are seven tips to optimize your digital marketing strategy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Prioritize customer needs over bells and whistles.</div><div style="text-align: left;">While your team is consumed with building your web presence and developing your product or service, it's easy to lose sight of the customer you want to target. "When building a brand online, too many people rush to buy ads and acquire traffic to drive revenues by brute force," says Tony Delmercado, co-founder and COO of Hawke Media. "Small efficiency improvements in conversion rates, email capture, and retargeting can pay huge dividends -- tighten up the mouse trap first, then buy eyeballs. You'll acquire and retain customers more cost-efficiently and keep money in your coffers for higher-risk marketing strategies."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Audit and update your SEO more frequently.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">You may know your product or service is great, but is it reaching all the people it could be? Search engine optimization can significantly help your brand reach the people who want what you're offering. Industry experts recommend updating your SEO once a quarter; after all, Google updates its algorithm more than 500 times a year. Find the keywords that are making your business gain or lose traction in the search engine cycle in order to make your brand as discoverable and searchable as possible.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Prioritize blogging as a lead generation tool.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of SEO: Posting relevant and valuable content drives traffic to your website and social media pages, while also increasing your ranking in search engines. In fact, marketers who blog are 13 times more likely to experience positive return on investment, and companies that blog generate 67 percent more leads than those who don't.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Each post you create is one more indexed page on your website, making it more likely customers will find you when searching online. It also indicates to search engines that your website is active, which will help surface your content to the top of search engine results. Further, blogging gives your brand a voice, and 91 percent of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand that is authentic rather than generic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Host high-quality webinars and live events.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">There are a variety of digital marketing resources you can use to engage with your audience, including webinars, podcasts, and online promotion of live events. To streamline the process of event promotion, try using a third party to make the process seamless. Event technology platforms like Eventbrite help brands create and market an event, as well as promote ticket sales and manage their audience. By getting some external help with the details, you can focus on the big picture and create an experience your customers will remember long after it's over.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Expand and refine your email distribution efforts.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach your audience, and the fact that it costs nearly nothing to execute makes it one of the best tools to add to your toolkit. Email open rates have increased 180 percent on mobile devices since 2014, and more than half of all U.S. cellphone owners access their email on their phone rather than a desktop.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Email works better than other mobile forms of notifications (like text messages) because they don't cost the consumer anything, can be accessed on devices other than phones, and have more space to deliver a message. Emails keep your audience engaged across platforms, which in turn helps keep your brand top of mind.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">6. Don't give social media short shrift.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Social media has become one of the biggest tools for marketing any brand. By first finding out what platforms your audience uses, you can then target your posts to the best times and dates to share. Engage with your audience on social media by starting conversations and responding to both praise and grievances. Sixty-seven percent of consumers use social media for customer service inquiries, so make sure that you become a part of that narrative so that you can direct it to a positive outcome.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">7. Make your marketing mobile.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Even if a desktop version of your marketing content looks great, be sure to check that it translates across devices. Consumers expect cohesion across platforms, and the better accessibility you provide your audience, the more likely they are to purchase.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Remember that authenticity reigns supreme in any of these strategies. Once you have that, an online presence allows you to connect with your audience in ways previously unknown and build a brand that they'll continuously want to engage with.</div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-55811324329933464382018-07-04T23:06:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:57.893-07:005 BENEFITS OF USING DEDICATED SERVERS<h2>DEDICATED SERVERS HOSTING</h2><br />While there are many hosting solutions available to companies who are just starting, especially cheaper priced shared hosting solutions, dedicated servers are definitely the right answer for your growing business if you already have or plan to have significant traffic. Here are 5 benefits of having your own dedicated hosting plan:<br /><br />1. Reliability<br />While shared hosting solutions are generally reliable, there are a ton more unknowns happening on the same box as your website at any given time. Due to the fact that many sites are being hosted using the same resources, a sudden surge of traffic or resource demand on one site can mean significant performance loss and costly outages or missed sales for your business. Having a dedicated server guarantees resources are always available to your site, allowing your business to remain unaffected by other websites hosted nearby.<br /><br />2. Root Access<br />Ah yes. The holy grail! Having your own segregated server grants you heightened access privileges that otherwise wouldn�t be available to you. This gives you the ability to customize your server anyway you wish - whether it�s building an nginx reverse proxy, or launching your own private minecraft box, or configuring your applications just the way you want, having your own dedicated server gives you the ability to make or break your setup anyway you want.<br /><br />3. Enhanced Support<br />We believe strongly in giving 110% to our customers, which is why we offer a managed tier of service to all of our customers with dedicated hosting packages. This means a 365/24/7 support team of rockstars who are in the data center and on site to help with your issues day or not - patches, physical restarts, enhanced reporting, carrier neutral network backbone - it�s all included at no additional cost.<br /><br />4. Increased Performance<br />Generally speaking, dedicated resources will mean a big boost to site and application performance over traditional shared hosting solutions. Granted there are always factors that influence this, not competing with the same resources from many other different sites during peak hours is going to always mean an instant win for your customers. If you go with a dedicated VPS, now you�ve got the power to scale on an as needed basis while leveraging the power of virtualization technology.<br /><br />5. Privacy<br />Don�t let the guy next door open up major security flaws that could impact your business. Having root access on your own dedicated server means you can ensure proper security, user roles, user groups, and file/folder permissions along with firewall rules are configured correctly, and as stringently as needed for your businesses specific needs. If you handle sensitive information, then you need the added security that you simply cannot get on a shared hosting plan.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-12950604432665461612018-07-04T23:00:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:58.347-07:00The Top 3 Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Data Rooms<h2>The Top 3 Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Data Rooms</h2><br />The most natural setting for complex transactions and sensitive information may seem like a stuffy boardroom. But it�s 2017 and business has shifted to the modern ways of the web. While you may not be able to convince that colleague who�s stuck in the 70s to do business differently, you can still save yourself. So, take a big breath of that collaborative workspace air, as you read more about the top reasons why you need a virtual data room:<br /><br />1. Business is About Relationships<br />You�re business savvy, so this shouldn�t be a shocker: To build solid relationships, you need trust and confidence in the tools that you use. Virtual data rooms have replaced the in-person document rooms and with this, comes the need for more trust. When you�re storing and sharing lots of documents in the cloud, tensions often rise, and conversations can get heated. When you can�t see the person on the other side of the deal, situations can escalate quickly.<br /><br />We like to think that we diffuse these scenarios because we make work easy. We like to call our Virtual Data Room: Very Doable Relationships. Making sure the right people see the right documents at the right time is crucial to your business transaction, and we make this very doable. Whether you�re trying to keep files secure, organized, and easily accessible or you merely want to communicate while conducting due diligence, your relationships throughout the process are priceless.<br /><br />2. Security and Confidentiality is Key<br />In the middle of complex deals, you find yourself in a bit of a Catch 22: You want to work fast, but you also want to make sure that everything you�re sharing is secure. In the past, you may have just sent an email that was confidential. You knew better, but you also wanted to communicate quickly and easily. In today�s digital age, the importance of protecting your information is fundamental.<br /><br />The good news is that online security and efficiency are not mutually exclusive. Technology and flexibility can seamlessly merge to allow collaboration and productivity. All you have to do is enter your virtual data room to share major files. Our platform has a fully functioning API that will enable you to quickly and easily share, protect, and track your business�s sensitive data.<br /><br />3. Streamlined Workflow<br />Your business transaction is already complicated enough, and you�re not looking for more chaos within your process. You hear the word �workflow� thrown around a lot, but what you�re really looking for is a streamline for your process. It�s not that difficult when you can seamlessly work with third party and proprietary applications.<br /><br />It�s essential to have a process for your productivity, but you also want to leave room for flexibility. Our data rooms allow you to set different levels of control so that you can track which parties view which documents.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-9190503873470713982018-07-01T21:27:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:58.801-07:00How to Market Your B2B Business in 2018 How to market your business in 2018<h2>How to Market Your B2B Business in 2018<br />How to market your business in 2018</h2><br />Are you looking for the latest and greatest marketing info on the planet, so you know how to market your B2B business in 2018? Do you want to grow your business exponentially? Do you want to make a lot more money?<br /><br />Stick around and I�ll introduce you to the model that will help you accomplish all that and much, much more.<br /><br />Where Is Marketing Headed?<br />The trouble with marketing now is it�s all over the place. Even the experts are grappling with questions such as: Is digital marketing separate from regular marketing? Should it be equal to or subordinate to marketing? Or should there not be a CMO anymore, and instead have the function run by a group of �officers,� like experience officers and revenue officers, and customer officers?<br /><br />In the Harvard Business Review article �There are 4 futures for CMOs (some better than others),� the authors Mark Bonchek and Gene Cornfield detail what�s plaguing marketing: �we�re entering into a new age of digital transformation. �Today�s consumers and business buyers have more choices and higher expectations than ever before. They want companies to be more human: to remember who they are, know what they like, and use that understanding to help them achieve their purpose. For companies, this requires an unprecedented level of integration and coordination across every business unit, from sales and marketing to customer service, and across physical and digital channels. This poses a deep challenge to companies organized by product and function rather than a customer-centric model like experience and value.�<br /><br />Sounds complicated and a little scary right?<br /><br />Now, you may be thinking that your business is small, and these types of marketing issues don�t affect you. Well, think again.<br /><br />I�ve been in marketing since 1996. In that time I�ve seen a lot of marketing channels, tactics, strategies, models, and ideas. I�ve been late to the party more than once, but the one pattern I have recognized in marketing is: everything the Harvard Business Review, or Phillip Kotler author of over 20 marketing books says, will affect the Fortune 500 and Global 1000 this year, and will affect almost every other business in the world within 3 � 5 years.<br /><br />It�s just a matter of time before the pressures of consumer behavior will affect your business too, and you will be grappling with the very same issues the Fortune 500 are grappling with this year.<br /><br />Pointing Towards a Marketing Solution<br />The trick is to realize this and be the first in your industry to review and consider implementing the ideas of the Fortune 500.<br /><br />Not all of them will be a fit, but some of them will explode the profits in your business because you will be the only one using them. This will give you a distinct advantage. If you maintain that advantage, you can grow your business as big as you want.<br /><br />The only problem is, what do you choose?<br /><br />Well, you have options. Here�s the ones I came up with:<br /><br />Try everything and see what works<br />Pick and choose what you will try based on some criteria<br />Look to others who have tried, for ideas (particularly those who have tried everything).<br />Right now B2B marketers, should:<br /><br />Track your marketing<br />Have digital marketing goals (and strategies to achieve them)<br />Review digital marketing analytics weekly<br />Have marketing automation in place<br />Have at least an intermediate level of sophistication with your email marketing<br />Have a blog, post regularly, and promote it<br />Utilize lead magnets<br />Build sales and marketing funnels<br />Engage leads across paid, earned, and owned media<br />Align Sales and Marketing<br />AND � Use Agile marketing ideas<br />*Side note: salespeople have a whole slew of things they should be doing now too, but I�ll save that for a different article.<br /><br />What Marketing Needs<br />The problem is, I estimate over 60% of businesses who should be doing the easiest things on the above list, aren�t. What�s worse, a fair portion doesn�t even know about these marketing ideas.<br /><br />What marketing needs is a way to organize all the strategies and tactics into a framework or model so you will always know what to do, have an idea of how to do it, and probably most importantly � know what you are missing.<br /><br />It also needs a method for organizing the campaigns, testing, measuring and optimizing them. And, it needs to be focused on results.<br /><br />At Mindwhirl, we�ve been trying to achieve that for 15 years. We started with a marketing map and then added a sales system. As we reviewed and optimized our business processes, it became clear that these two �models� had overlap.<br /><br />That overlap became what we are now calling the Agile B2B Client Acquisition Model, but I�ll get into that in a second.<br /><br />Let me ask you a question:<br /><br />Are you 100% confident in your marketing strategy? Do you fully understand all the available options now? Do you understand how your SEO is affected by your content, and how social fits in? Are you tracking and measuring? Do you know your pipeline and funnel? How many leads do you have? How many are you actively working? What�s your pipeline velocity? Who are your target personas? Etc.<br /><br />You may think the odds of a new competitor with deep pockets coming into your industry with a bright idea, are slim, but if it did happen, could you compete? Would you be prepared to quell the upstart?<br /><br />When I start work for a new client, I think from the upstart�s position. I ask myself what I would have to do to offer amazing value and turn an industry on its head.<br /><br />The reason is, that�s about what it takes to get noticed now days.<br /><br />Now pardon me for being a dude, but when I think of upstarts, I think of the British �fleet� versus the Spanish armada.<br /><br />Imagine, a massive amount of smaller, lighter, faster, more nimble, more agile vessels with a few guns, versus hundreds of Spanish galleons armed to the teeth with hundreds of guns on multiple decks.<br /><br />Who would win?<br /><br />All bets were on the obvious winner: the Spanish armada.<br /><br />But the British destroyed the Spanish armada. The Spanish didn�t just retreat and run home with their tail between their legs. No, there was no Spanish armada after the encounter with the British. It was torn asunder and lies on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.<br /><br />Heard of Rommel? Or Blitzkrieg?<br /><br />Hitler didn�t capture Europe and Northern Africa by going slow and rooting out every enemy combatant. He blew past them in tanks and cut their supply lines and made them come out or starve.<br /><br />Just as the lesson of the Spanish armada teaches, our businesses and our ability to acquire clients too must be light, fast, nimble, and agile.<br /><br />And that�s what marketing needs. It needs to understand the strategies and tactics in play right now on the field of business. And it needs to be able to implement a strategy in a light, fast, nimble, and agile way.<br /><br />We�ve found that is achieved with three key tools:<br /><br />The Agile B2B Client Acquisition Model<br />Agile Marketing Ideas and Methods<br />Templates for everything. Ex. Ads, emails, webinars, messages, testing patterns, etc.<br />The Agile B2B Client Acquisition Model<br />The Agile B2B Client Acquisition model unites sales and marketing through content and process. It details a model for marketing which is as close to the reality of how marketing works now as we can devise.<br /><br />That means you can follow the model to build a client acquisition machine that gets sales and marketing to work together in a coordinated way to acquire leads, educate them, close those who are ready to take action, and nurture the rest to close.<br /><br />The model helps you know how your client acquisition machine works, and if you are still building it, you know what you are missing.<br /><br />It details how to use marketing now, and tries to dispel the confusion. For instance, SEO and Social are bound together. How? By content. You can�t get on the top of Google without content unless you are using tricks. Similarly, the best use for social media as a business is to promote your content. So, you can�t do social without content.<br /><br />Is that all content is good for?<br /><br />Turns out, no. If you unite sales and marketing, sales can use that content too. Think about it. Sales teams today are either just saying the same pitch over and over to new people, or they are just checking in, or following up with leads that weren�t interested the first time through.<br /><br />Why can�t sales promote content? Especially new content � it gives them something to talk about.<br /><br /><br />When you see the model you�ll understand what I�m talking about. Sales and marketing create a type of perpetual motion machine, and each enhances and boosts the other to greater and greater performance and profitability.<br /><br />We�ll go into this deeper and explain how it works in subsequent articles. In the meantime, make sure to pick up your copy of the model so you can understand the basics and get an idea of how it works, and could work in your business.<br /><br />Agile Marketing Ideas and Methods<br />Agile has taken the world by storm. It was popularized by software developers as a better way to develop programs. Developers were frustrated by the clients every time they delivered their solution. Invariably, the client would say, �Yeah, you know, now that I see it, it�d be great if it could do X, Y and Z instead of A, B, and C.�<br /><br />So, developers realized they could take the ideas the client is giving them and start building before having detailed plans, and have regular review sessions where the client got to use the program they were having built to give their feedback while in development.<br /><br />This not only led to a quicker, more agile development process. There were happier clients, and happier developers.<br /><br />So, they formalized it and called it Agile.<br /><br />Even though the terms Agile and Lean had different starts, they are based on similar ideas and have become synonymous.<br /><br />When you apply Agile to marketing, you start to realize how less is actually more, and you find you can get a lot more, a lot faster through testing than you can through churning out marketing campaign after marketing campaign in an effort to �feed the beast.�<br /><br />At Mindwhirl, we�ve verified a lot of what Scott Brinker spoke about in his book �Hacking Marketing.� *&lt;� affiliate link � You can find out more about Scott at chiefmartech.com.<br /><br />He claimed that if you work in �short loops of incremental and iterative work, with built-in checkpoints for feedback and adaptation �� you could make amazing gains in productivity, quality and profitability. But if you added �visualizing your work and workflow establishes a framework in which that engine can run fast � yet in a controlled and efficient fashion� you could organize, schedule and control the work.<br /><br />When we read that we thought, that sounded like something worth testing.<br /><br />So we went to work adapting our business processes (like Michael Gerber talks about in E-Myth) and tweaking them to fit an Agile/Lean model, and built our business�s marketing around sprints. Sprints are short durations of work with tests built in � like the T.O.T.E. model stipulates.<br /><br />As we began using this style it was different. The management style was different for me at first, it took some getting used to. But now I feel more a part of a team with my employees/co-workers. Plus, the transparency into the goals of the project and the business make the team feel like they are a part of something, and more importantly for me, they take responsibility for their own productivity.<br /><br />I could go on and on, but let me just give you one suggestion and a brief example.<br /><br />First the suggestion: I strongly suggest you read the book, *�Hacking Marketing� by Scott Brinker.�&nbsp; He does a great job of explaining the current state of marketing and giving you ideas to build an Agile marketing team like we have done.<br /><br />As an example of the efficiency levels we have reached, I wanted to give you a case study. A local College asked us to bid on a web design project. We don�t like web design projects, but we really like the Director of Communications. So we helped them to understand why they should hire us on a monthly basis to build out their website � in an Agile way.<br /><br />A 400+ page website.<br /><br />They had several bids on the table when we were called in. All of them were over $120,000 with development timelines of 12 � 18 months.<br /><br />So, before I tell you how well we performed, let me ask, what would be a good savings in time and/or money?<br /><br />Say, if we could guarantee the sites� completion in 12 months for $90K, that would be nice right?<br /><br />What about 9 months for $80K? That would be amazing wouldn�t it?<br /><br />Well, the actual figures are astounding.<br /><br />A 2 person team, 1 working full-time, the other working under 10 hours a week, redesigned the entire 400+ page web site, developed content and graphics, integrated systems like calendars, online courses, faculty databases and a course catalog �<br /><br />� in 3 months of development. 4.25 months total, 1 week of planning meetings, 3 months of agile development, and 1 month of training and hand holding.<br /><br />The total price: $50,000.<br /><br />A savings of 9 � 15 months and $70,000.<br /><br />Templates for Everything<br />After you create 10 or 15 marketing campaigns you begin to nail down the processes involved. As you continue, you begin to see patterns. If you track, you will see those patterns repeat again and again in your marketing.<br /><br />I first noticed this when I was studying copywriting. The sage advice is to keep a copy of all the marketing you like and make a swipe file of it.<br /><br />The greatest direct response marketers suggest keeping a swipe file of headlines, sub-headlines, hooks, bullets, etc.<br /><br />I wondered, why we couldn�t extend that to offers? Then, what about emails, landing pages, and all the other marketing campaigns and collateral a marketing department generates?<br /><br />We�ve done it for everything we can. Including formalizing a method to create a unique selling proposition/value proposition and an irresistible offer.<br /><br />Using Agile marketing ideas, we�ve also begun creating message libraries for clients. These libraries hold all the existing marketing messages of the company, plus we expand it with hundreds of headlines and paragraphs of copy around the products and services the client sells and how those products solve real problems for the consumer.<br /><br />There�s a whole lot more to this, that I�ll get into later in another article, but for now I want you to understand the value of templatizing your marketing so you can create high quality marketing quickly � so you can test quickly, so you can make sales quickly and learn how to further increase conversions and profitability.<br /><br />Using Agile Marketing, a Reliable Map, and Marketing Templates Gives You A Significant Advantage<br />So, what do you think the advantages of being able to quickly test campaigns for different personas, markets, segments, audiences, etc. are?<br /><br />Instead of grinding out new content for campaign after campaign, what if you utilized anchor content and focused on optimizing the experience of your marketing to appeal to today�s consumers?<br /><br />What if you built systems and processes � a machine � that gives today�s buyers more choices and fulfills their expectations. That tailors itself to them.<br /><br />It�s only possible through the coordination of the different units of your business. Sales and marketing unification should be the minimum goal.<br /><br />Of course, it�s going to require tools like a marketing automation platform, a CRM, and a blurring of the lines of personnel roles and adjustments to how you market and sell, but the payoff is well worth it.<br /><br />Trouble is, most business owners, and VPs of Marketing and Sales will want to stick with the status quo and keep everything as it is. That�s an option. But whether you like it or not, within the next 3 years, B2B businesses are going to have to figure out how to organize their companies around experience and value.<br /><br />That can only be achieved by having a model to guide you in the creation of a successful marketing strategy, like our Agile B2B Client Acquisition model, and through rigorous testing, like the Agile marketing ideas suggest.<br /><br />That will help your company stand out and get attention, while doing it as efficiently and effectively as possible through 2018 and beyond.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-69629988217293869112018-07-01T21:23:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:59.263-07:00Digital Marketing Campaign Plan: Choose the Right Hosting<h2>Digital Marketing Campaign Plan: Choose the Right Hosting</h2><br />Planning for a digital marketing campaign is, by anyone�s definition, a complex task. But all the preparation in the world won�t do any good if you don�t take one very important first step � making sure your infrastructure is ready. Think of it this way: You may be able to generate a huge amount of interest in your product or service and drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your website, but what good will all that effort be if your site is slow or � even worse � not functional? That�s why preparing your infrastructure should be the very first step in your digital marketing campaign plan, and that means choosing a hosting provider that�s right for your company.<br /><br />Which Provider is Best for You?<br />Just as preparing your infrastructure is the most important first step in your digital marketing campaign, choosing the right provider is the most important first step of preparing your infrastructure. You can start by understanding exactly what services you�ll need from a hosting company, then making sure that the package offered by your hosting company is customized to suit your specific needs so you�ll never pay for services you don�t actually use.<br /><br />Choose a provider that�s proactive. While many companies can offer you a customized package of services, finding a proactive provider is much more challenging. At PointClick, we make the extra effort of monitoring your infrastructure on a regular basis � not just when you have an issue. That means we can anticipate which issues may become problems in the future; find and repair breaches before any damage is done; and monitor the progress of your campaign over time.<br /><br />Little Things Matter in Managed Hosting<br />Will Your Data Be Safe?<br />Almost any provider will tell you that they protect your data, but it�s important to know the details about how they intend to do that. You�ll need to understand what safety measures your provider has in place at their data centers. Is access restricted or can anyone enter their buildings? How well are they constructed and protected against the ravages of severe weather or other disasters? What kind of data recovery plans does your provider have in place that will ensure that your data is safe, and your network is up and running as quickly as possible in the case of an emergency?<br /><br />At PointClick, we spell out very clearly for our customers exactly the security and compliance measures we take to protect your information. This includes performing anti-virus and firewall maintenance; encrypting data and managing a secure FTP server; performing CDN management and maintenance; and managing web application firewalls. In addition, our routine monitoring of your network enables us to find breaches before any real damage is done.<br /><br />Preparing your infrastructure should be the very first step in your digital marketing campaign plan.<br /><br />Is Your Infrastructure Ready to Support Your Digital Marketing Campaign Plan?<br />Once you�ve chosen a hosting company with a customized package of services, and have some assurance that your information will be adequately protected, you�ll need to work with your provider to make sure your infrastructure is ready for the results of your digital marketing campaign. You�ll need sufficient storage and bandwidth to accommodate what could be a significant increase in traffic.<br /><br />There are other tasks that your provider should perform as part of your campaign preparation prior to launching your campaign. Ask your provider what kind of testing they perform. There are various categories, each of which is vital to ensure that your system is ready for your campaign: application testing determines how well your network can handle extremely heavy traffic loads; and load and stress testing will determine how your system performs under a variety of different conditions. But testing isn�t the only task that needs to be done before you launch your campaign. At PointClick, we understand how vital it is to ensure that you�re ready for whatever the results of your campaign may bring. For one of our customers, that meant scaling up their existing DNN platform by 4,900% � increasing their capacity from 4,000 users per year to 200,000!<br /><br />From ensuring that you have sufficient bandwidth and storage to optimizing your applications � you�ll need a provider that offers complete go-to-market launch support.<br /><br />Will Your Provider Follow Up?<br />Obviously, in addition to ensuring that your infrastructure is prepared before your digital marketing campaign is launched, you�ll also need to make sure that your hosting company will follow up routinely after your campaign begins and will continue to do so throughout your working relationship. At PointClick, we are proactive in continually monitoring your system, which enables us to provide you with the information you really need to make your marketing efforts a success, rather than bombarding you with meaningless technical information you don�t need (or want) to know. We provide information that�s vital in measuring the effectiveness of your campaign, such as:<br /><br />Who is visiting your site<br />How long it takes for each page to load<br />How your site performs in different regions<br />What type of content is most frequently loaded<br />When your site goes down and for how long<br />Choose a provider that will ensure your infrastructure is ready for the results of your digital marketing campaign, providing sufficient storage and bandwidth and optimized applications.<br /><br />Are You Receiving True Customer Service?<br />Have you ever put in a service call to a company, only to wait a ridiculously long period of time for an automated response? Make sure your provider will be there when you need them the most, and that they�ll get back to you personally, rather than with just an automated response. They should treat you not just as a client, but as a trusted business partner.<br /><br />At PointClick, we go above and beyond what most other hosting companies provide with another service that might just prove to be invaluable to your campaign: We provide a complete End-to-End Network Technology and Specifications document for each client. This is, essentially, a map of the whole system. Having this type of information enables our customers to recreate their entire campaign if service is ever discontinued or interrupted, and they can take that plan to ANY hosting provider.<br /><br />Ask your prospective provider if they�ll do the same. If not, it may be time to turn to a hosting company that truly understands the needs of marketers and specializes in hosting for digital marketing teams -PointClick.<br /><br />If you�re still researching, we have a free eBook titled The Little Things Matter In Managed Hosting: Why Digital Marketers Need A Managed Hosting Partner That Works As Your Extended IT Team. Download it now if you need some help selecting your Managed Hosting Provider.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-28140543847447627132018-07-01T21:22:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:27:59.726-07:00Know About Digital Marketing and Web Hosting Services<h2>Know About Digital Marketing and Web Hosting Services</h2><br />For any business, marketing is one of the vital features. There are different ways of marketing. But, in the modern context, online business and marketing is the most easiest and popular mode. The backbone of the online business is online branding and digital marketing. Almost everyone knows the term digital marketing, but in a compact way, the marketing of products or services with the help of the digital technologies is digital marketing. Digital technologies include internet in broader areas, but use of the mobile phones, advertisement on displays and other forms of digital mediums are also included in this.<br /><br />The way of marketing using the digital media can be performed by the professionals with enough skill in this area. To find out a proper Digital Marketing Company in Kolkata or a skilled professional in the field is not very easy. This is because there are hundreds of professionals or companies found in this area nowadays. To choose the perfect one efficient for your business, you have to select wisely and in a calculative way.<br /><br />The steps to choose the appropriate Digital marketing company in an effective way:<br /><br />Select some of the company names and list them.<br />Choose one at a time and then check their portfolios thoroughly to segregate some of them.<br />Depending on your requirements and the budget, shortlist the company names.<br />Contact the shortlisted companies one at a time.<br />Detail them your requirements and your budget and choose the one that matches all your criteria.<br />By the above manners you can easily choose the best possible Digital Marketing Company in Kolkata.<br /><br />Apart from the digital marketing company, you need to know about a reliable and authentic web hosting provider. There can be a number of them, but you need someone special. The one who can match all your needs and you do not have to worry about the complete process.<br /><br /><br /><br />What a web hosting provider do?<br /><br />A web hosting provider allows the organizations or the individuals or the companies to showcase themselves by means of a website that can be reached easily through www or World Wide Web. The space on a server is what the Hosting provider in Kolkata provides. Different packages are there depending on many factors like the type of the website or the validity of booking the space or others. In a web hosting plan, there are some features which are considered like the disk space, uptime, and band-width, customer service, programming service along with other features like CMS or Content Management System and choice of operating system. Different types of web server hosting are available like dedicated server hosting, cloud server hosting and shared server hosting. Many internet service providers offer free web server hosting, but there are certain limitations in that type of websites. Picking up the right web Hosting provider in Kolkata is very important for online success. To choose the smart web hosting provider for conducting online business in a pocket friendly budget is the key to success.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-90189090283333678992018-07-01T21:20:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:00.253-07:00Tips For Digital Marketing Agencies On Improving Customer Support<h2>Tips For Digital Marketing Agencies On Improving Customer Support</h2><div><div>Here are some tips for digital marketing agencies: What can digital marketers do to improve their customer support and the market performance of their clients?</div><div><br /></div><div>Present-day business challenges affect every single entity involved in modern business. No matter if your business is big or small, offline or online, the rules of the game are pretty much the same.</div><div><br /></div><div>For various business ventures, there�s a market out there that has some demands. Reaching success in that arena requires a set of strong personal and professional skills. Even if you possess them, you still need to master the essence of the market you�re working in � marketing skills.</div><div><br /></div><div>Analyze And Revise Clients� Goals</div><div>Let�s say that your digital marketing agency has just started working with a new client. They�re an ambitious startup with some innovative ideas, but they lack marketing experience.</div><div><br /></div><div>The initial steps you make here might determine the fate of that startup, so be extremely cautious. For starters, analyze their business goals. It�s much easier to bring a marketing strategy when you know what business direction the client would like to take.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your next step should be advising them on the number and range of their marketing goals. However, don�t take the role of a business advisor here, but strictly hold to their marketing goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>What you can to is refer them to an informative piece on goal-setting techniques, published by the Harvard Business Review.</div><div><br /></div><div>Narrowing down the number of goals is extremely important for startups, so take just a pinch of advisory responsibility here and prevent your clients from making any hasty decisions they will later regret.</div><div><br /></div><div>Establish Clear Communication Channels</div><div>Your collaboration with different clients should follow the same pattern.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the one side, it�s important that teams take part in creating and implementing marketing strategies. On the other, such an approach can lead to diffusion of responsibility.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since too many cooks spoil the broth, some parts of communication with your clients should be centralized. For instance, suggest your clients to name their communication officers.</div><div><br /></div><div>You should appoint yours, as well. Those people will be in charge of dealing with your common daily business tasks as an agency. When every single individual in your communication pipeline knows their roles and obligations, it will be much easier to pursue your goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, using some cutting-edge project management solutions will improve business communication and planning between your marketing agency and your clients.</div><div><br /></div><div>digital agency project management for customer support</div><div><br /></div><div>Deepen Your Business Relationships</div><div>In 2015, 27% of brands stated they didn�t outsource their marketing services, but opted for a special in-house team [source].</div><div><br /></div><div>This is something that should worry digital marketers. The main cause for abandoning digital marketing agencies is the change happening on the global Web market. Namely, the number of active businesses is rapidly rising, leading to a fierce battle for survival.</div><div><br /></div><div>What your potential clients want aren�t mere social media strategies anymore. They can use a variety of software tools to measure and improve their position there. On the contrary, they need seamless nurture and support.</div><div><br /></div><div>In line with that, modern marketers should be a shoulder to cry on, as well as someone who will inspire their clients to broaden their horizons.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let your clients become your business partners. Connect them with your contacts and expand their professional network.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, show your customers how to improve their public image through appropriate PR-campaigns. When you push the envelope, and offer your clients a different approach, you�ll manage to retain your old customers and attract new ones.</div><div><br /></div><div>Improve Their Rational Thinking</div><div>Many small and mid-sized enterprises go bankrupt because they fail to meet their financial obligations.</div><div><br /></div><div>An experienced and insightful marketing agency should warn their clients when they notice they�re planning to make unnecessary marketing expenses. For instance, imagine that a startup client of yours is developing in a desired way and there�s a high demand for their products on the market.</div><div><br /></div><div>This will lead to an increased number of customers, which will further result in greater need for proper customer support. Here�s where things will get tricky. They will probably jump on hiring more workers and forming a new in-house team.</div><div><br /></div><div>What you should do is advise them to think twice and show them some other solutions. According to Office HQ, outsourcing your customer support leads to increased productivity and reduced costs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Similarly, if your client expresses a desire to win new markets, due to such steady growth, give them all the pros and cons of such wide market thinking.</div><div><br /></div><div>You should study together the situations on those markets and take into consideration all the relevant factors. Best-case scenario, you�ll advise them to expand to one or two new markets, instead of scattering both your and their energy in too many directions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Providing a service for another business requires a deep understanding of their position and business objectives.</div><div><br /></div><div>Being a digital marketer makes this task even more demanding, since your main goal is directing their marketing moves. This is why it�s essential that your clients share as much information with you as possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Only open and continuous communication will give you proper input for creating marketing strategies that will make your clients stand out from the crowd.</div></div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-42911633379042621112018-07-01T21:19:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:00.707-07:00Five Digital Marketing Tips To Propel Your Business<h2>Five Digital Marketing Tips To Propel Your Business</h2><div><div>We�re almost halfway through 2018 now, at this point in the year, you would hope that people involved with social marketing are set with their strategies and know what they are planning for the remainder of the year.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, if that isn�t you and you�ve been struggling with digital strategy up to this point in 2018, then no fear, because Crowd is here!</div><div><br /></div><div>As such, here are five digital strategy tips that you can implement for the second half of this year!</div><div><br /></div><div>TIP #1 � BEGIN TO INTEGRATE VIDEO INTO THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY:</div><div>One of the biggest social media lessons learned in 2017 was the increased demand for video personalisation and for that to then be integrated into the customer journey. Adding a well-placed video to your website or social media to illustrate what your company offers as a service, or cause, then you can offer a personalised customer journey, which is a creative way to leave your mark.</div><div><br /></div><div>TIP #2 � KEEP YOUR EYE ON SEO:</div><div>Even with the explosion of social media over the last few years, the first port of call for many people when searching on the internet is still a search engine.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you have a presence in the top positions for keywords the user is searching, then you have a much better chance of attracting more attention and trust for your company.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for utilising technology: consider a strategy on how to optimize your site�s content to meet Google�s standards for Featured Snippets.</div><div><br /></div><div>TIP #3 � START USING LIVE VIDEO:</div><div>Live video isn�t necessarily a new thing in the realms of social media, however, it is more popular now than ever before. Facebook live especially is blowing up across the internet, with reports stating that 80% of users would now rather watch a live video than read a blog post (not this one though of course!) As well as beating blog posts in popularity, Live videos on Facebook and YouTube now get roughly three times the number of views than a pre-recorded video.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are a couple of quick tips for starting your live video journey:</div><div><br /></div><div>Use live video at events to give followers a behind-the-scenes look at the event.</div><div>Use live video to introduce your followers to your employees.</div><div>Advertise an exclusive sale or promotion to anyone who watches your live video.</div><div>TIP #4 � START TO PAY ATTENTION TO GENERATION Z:</div><div>Generation Z are the generation after the �Millennials�. Generation Z were born between the mid-90s and early 2000s. Up until this point, everybody loves to hate marketing to young people, but it�s time to start paying them attention.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2018, you can see already that companies have started to target Generation Z � the next generation, it�s a good time to start because the generation could span for twenty years.</div><div><br /></div><div>What should businesses know about Generation Z?</div><div><br /></div><div>Gen Z favours companies with corporate social responsibilities that align with their beliefs and values which consist of bold ideas, creativity and optimism.</div><div>Gen Z is pragmatic and realistic, but they also believe it is possible to achieve their �dream job� and build a career doing what they love.</div><div>Opportunities for professional development are most essential when attracting Gen Z.</div><div><br /></div><div>TIP #5 � THINK ABOUT WHAT INFLUENCER MARKETING CAN DO FOR YOU:</div><div>If you want to quickly build your brand online and raise awareness amongst your target audience, then influencer marketing could be the way forward for you. Influencer marketing is now growing faster than digital ads.</div><div><br /></div><div>If done right, the best part of influencer marketing is that the audience is already there. You don�t have to build a databased of people that you can then market to. All you have to do is figure out a win-win partnership where the influencer can benefit too.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the best influencer marketing stats:</div><div><br /></div><div>90% of consumers trust their peers recommendations.</div><div>User generated content (UGC) is 50% more trusted by internet users than traditional media.</div><div>Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals.</div><div>81% of consumers trust advice and information from blogs.</div><div>If you found this article helpful, then make sure you follow Crowd across our social media platforms:</div><div><br /></div><div>Facebook � https://www.facebook.com/CrowdCommunications</div><div><br /></div><div>Twitter � https://twitter.com/thisiscrowd</div><div><br /></div><div>Instagram � https://www.instagram.com/thisiscrowd/</div></div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-82391850778990053622018-07-01T21:18:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:01.162-07:00Digital Marketing Tips: Do You Have a Traffic Problem or a Conversion Problem?When I discovered social media 7 years ago I was attracted by its potential to gain free global attention. You didn�t need to pay for an online audience or traffic. You attracted website visitors by writing great content, giving it away for free and growing your social networks.<br /><br />This awareness was driven in part when I read the book �The New Rules of Marketing and PR� by David Meerman Scott. It was an insight that changed my life forever.<br /><br />It was also a pivotal shift in marketing.<br /><br />You no longer needed to pay the mass media gatekeepers. You could build and reach your audience without sucking up to journalists or paying media owners. It was the new world of online attraction. It was given a few monikers, including �inbound marketing� and �content marketing�<br /><br />These were the key reasons I was drawn to social media and blogging. Global traffic and influence in real time without paying a cent. There lies the first ingredient for online success.<br /><br />Traffic.<br /><br />Here are some digital marketing tips that may solve your traffic and conversion problems.<br /><br />Traffic<br />Website traffic is getting harder to attract. Why?<br /><br />The amount of noise inline is increasing and the competition is fierce compared to 10 years ago. Today it is estimated that there are over 1 billion websites and counting. That�s a lot of noise and clutter to cut through. Research is also showing that another 3 billion people will join the Internet in the next 5 years. And you thought it was hard today!<br /><br />The tortuous task to traffic is made even tougher because it is not just one device but many. Mobile has also complicated the game.<br /><br />It cannot be ignored any longer and with 31% (and growing) share of web traffic, it also needs to be factored into your traffic and platform tactics.<br /><br />Web traffic by device<br /><br />Source: Wearesocial<br /><br />But there are two key ways to get traffic to your �owned� digital platforms. Earn it or pay for it. That�s it.<br /><br />The web properties that you own include:<br /><br />Website<br />Landing pages<br />Sales pages<br />Mobile site<br />Blog<br />Social media channels<br />To attract traffic to those sites you need to pay for it or earn it.<br /><br />Paid earned and owned media<br /><br />Source: Titan SEO<br /><br />There is also an approach to digital marketing that requires a philosophical mind shift. It is what results when you pay and earn traffic, build email lists that grow your online brand.<br /><br />In the past traditional advertising was considered an expense. Direct mail leaves no trail except to line the bottom of bins or start a fire.&nbsp; TV advertising becomes invisible unless it is re-purposed into a Youtube video. Radio ads are here today and gone tomorrow.<br /><br />Never to be heard of again.<br /><br />Digital marketing should be considered not just an expense but an investment today and into the future.<br /><br />It doesn�t disappear like traditional media because the result is an increased digital footprint and presence that builds web assets (Eg. website, traffic, social networks, organic Google search results and YouTube channels). If you aren�t investing in these digital assets today your future is looking a little dim. it is not a zero sum game.<br /><br />Let�s now take a closer look at the earned traffic component.<br /><br />a. Earned traffic<br />If you have �time but no money� then you can do the work and �earn� traffic. Get up early, create the awesome content, grow your social networks, optimize your content for search engines and keep doing it every day.<br /><br />That�s what I did, because 7 years ago I had the time but not the money. I got up at 4.30am and did the work until my day job started at 9am. It was brutal, but I was a passionate and driven animal. I did this for 4 years.<br /><br />After years of creating content, building a tribe and sharing on social media and building an email list I now get a ton of so called �free� traffic. Over 55% of it comes from organic search engine traffic and another 20% comes from social media. The rest comes from inbound links and other earned online attention and influence.<br /><br />My traffic and its earned sources of generation has become a �digital asset�. How valuable is that? A lot, but it is hard to value.<br /><br />Generalsentiment.com put a value of $5 on a CPM metric to Twitter impressions and came up with a dollar value. Nice if you can get it, but it is just a number.<br /><br />value of earned<br /><br />But the reality is that the traffic is not free and true monetary value is only unlocked when it is realized.<br /><br />I have spent thousands of hours on all those activities. Optimising the blog posts for search engines, writing, adding a pop up to collect email subscribers and building my Twitter followers. That�s just the tip of the earned traffic iceberg.<br /><br />�Don�t underestimate the real effort, inspiration and persistence to manifest earned traffic�.<br /><br />The potential and very real problem with earned traffic<br />Time is a strange dimension.<br /><br />We sometimes forget the price of earned traffic because it has been paid for in the often distant past. Its real cost is forgotten or ignored. The true value is lost in the mists of time and noise.<br /><br />Appreciated for sure, but because it keeps turning up without any direct daily cost the value is often mentally discounted. This can lead to an attitude that devalues its true worth and investment and can lead to not pursuing the second ingredient to online business success.<br /><br />Conversion.<br /><br />I started to realize that I hadn�t invested enough time and attention to making sure the traffic converts with Germanic engineering efficiency. I had become a traffic watcher junkie and not a traffic converting ninja.<br /><br />So I discovered that I didn�t have a traffic problem but a conversion problem.<br /><br />But before we look at conversion let�s take a quick look at paid traffic.<br /><br />b. Paid traffic<br />If you �have the money but not the time� you can pay for traffic. The two primary ways. Google Adwords or Facebook advertising.<br /><br />Let�s take a glance at the the paid piece.<br /><br />If you are paying for Facebook Ads, Google Adwords or LinkedIn in Ads at $10 -$20 per email lead then you have to make sure that the traffic and leads converts. Otherwise you are throwing away money.<br /><br />So what do you need to do?<br /><br />You need to measure and quantify your cost of lead acquisition. Then you need to work out what each paying customer is worth. This leads to 3 possible scenarios with your business acquisition when paying for traffic.<br /><br />There are only 3 possible scenarios<br />So what they?<br /><br />In essence it is like a business plan. A loss, break-even or a profit. That�s it.<br /><br />Let�s take a look at the numbers that matter.<br /><br />Loss: 20 leads cost $20 each = $400 in advertising expenses. You convert one of those into a $200 digital product sale. Assuming for simplicity�s sake that there are no other associated costs.&nbsp; You have just lost $200!<br />Breakeven: 20 leads cost $20 each and you convert two of those 10 leads into a $200 digital product sale. $400 in expenses and $400 in revenue. That�s break even excluding any other associated costs.<br />Profit: 20 leads cost $20 each and you convert 4 of those 10 leads into a $200 digital product sale. Revenue is $800 and costs are $400. That�s a $400 profit excluding any other associated costs.<br />In a paid digital marketing scenario if you don�t know what your lead acquisition costs are and what your conversion rate of those leads are to paying customers, you could be going broke fast and don�t even know it.<br /><br />So in the paid digital advertising model you have to be disciplined and have attention to detail otherwise you go out the back door.<br /><br />It is a numbers game.<br /><br />In a digital marketing world you have so many numbers that you need to work what are the key metrics you should be measuring.<br /><br />But there is also problem with paid<br />The issue with paid is this. Stop paying for advertising and the traffic stops. Stop pulling the credit card out and the that traffic from Facebook ads or Google Adwords just disappears.<br /><br />You need to keep paying the piper.<br /><br />If you have the capital and it takes 90 days to take a prospect from a subscriber to a customer then you are fine. But if you run out of capital and have no more cash then you have to stop.<br /><br />What if you did both well?<br />This is digital marketing nirvana.<br /><br />You have a ton of traffic that keeps showing up without paying Mark or Google and you can also get targeted traffic to your lead acquisition page (sometimes called an email subscriber) by bashing the credit card. Do both well and digital heaven awaits you.<br /><br />1. Free earned and organic traffic from search, social and the email list<br />Building earned traffic that comes from ranking high on Google�s search engine results. Traffic coming in from having built a tribe and audience on social and a large email list built over years of offering free content in exchange for an email.<br /><br />This traffic keeps turning up even if you turn of the advertising tap. Sure you still have to feed the content machine (blog), but that is the price of earned attention.<br /><br />2. Paid traffic that converts at a profit<br />Using targeted and well designed advertising campaigns that bring traffic to your website and landing pages in an efficient and cost effective process. This is the start of a tested and optimized prospect and sales funnel.<br /><br />2. Conversion<br />So what is one of the key ingredients and secret sauces to monetizing the traffic? It is the other ingredient to online business success. It is the marketing funnel.<br /><br />It�s where you �convert� the traffic earned and paid into customers and cash.<br /><br />The marketing funnel is not new but is has evolved in a digital world. In the past you attracted traffic with print ads, TV and other traditional media and the sales team converted them to sales. Today that still works but the game is rapidly changing.<br /><br />It is a digital marketing funnel that you also need to consider.<br /><br />marketing funnel<br /><br />Source: Blogreadytomanage.com<br /><br />What are the two key types of digital marketing funnels you need to master to go from a blogger that writes and creates, to a blogger that earns? Or from an online business that gets by to one that booms?<br /><br />1. Funnel for email list building (or lead acquisition)<br />Building an email list is still the best tactic for making money online. The saying the money is in the list still holds despite the shiny toy of social media. Social is great for the top of the funnel brand awareness and traffic but the email list is where the real magic happens!<br /><br />Some of the tactics that are required here include offering a free content such as an e-book and a pop-up on entry or exit. The tools include WordPress plugins and of course an email marketing platform. If you really want to take it to the next level then you will implement digital marketing automation platforms like Infusionsoft, Hubspot or Marketo.<br /><br />2. Funnel for marketing and selling the digital product<br />Digital (or online) marketing funnels that convert is an art and a science.<br /><br />You need copy (the message) that creates trust and converts a doubter to a passionate advocate. This is the art part and copywriters know how to craft the message that removes doubt and builds trust.<br /><br />The science is the process and technology. it is the measurement and the ongoing optimization of what works.<br /><br />Todd Brown from Marketing Funnel Automation, who inspired this post. (Thanks Todd!), sees the marketing funnel approach this way.<br /><br />�75% of the funnel is marketing and other 25% is selling�<br /><br />He also explains that the major marketing component is �EBM� or �Education based marketing� and the product is not to be discussed until the 3rd or even 4th video. You need to find out and answer questions and doubts on what the prospect needs to �believe� to buy? You need to answer that questions(s), before you will convert them from a lead to a customer.<br /><br />Typical objections need to be answered before they are raised:<br /><br />One cool acronym that digital direct response marketers like Todd trot out is �NTPSM�<br /><br />�Need, time, procrastination, spouse and money�<br /><br />If you answer these objections in your copy and messaging upfront before its raised then it�s educative rather than combative! (if raised later).<br /><br />The reality is that the prospect is going to doubt everything you say.&nbsp; You need to provide proof for each claim in the �VSL� (Video sales letter).<br /><br />�Don�t underestimate the real effort, inspiration and attention to detail to make money with paid traffic�.<br /><br />Todd�s take on paying for traffic is: �If you can�t track it then don�t pay for it� as paid traffic imposes a financial discipline that if ignored can be financially fatal!<br /><br />Is it time for you to become a conversion Ninja? Have you got your funnel tracking numbers so nailed you know what it costs to make that sale online?<br /><br />What about you?<br />Have you got a traffic problem or is it a conversion problem? Look forward to hearing your insights and stories in the comments below.<br /><br />Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-47271769873544853702018-07-01T21:17:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:01.620-07:004 Tips to Stay Ahead in Digital MarketingKeep learning, networking and crowing about your own successes<br />With all the forms of digital marketing that are out there�mobile apps and sites, podcasts, digital TV and radio and digitized versions of traditional media�how can you stay ahead of the curve as digital marketing evolves? The solution is to design your own ongoing education one step at a time. That way, when the right job opens up, you�re at the ready�with a whole slate of skills, connections and ideas to offer your future employer.<br /><br />Read on for four great ways to get going.<br /><br />1. Join a LinkedIn Group<br />For a director who�s aspiring to a C-level position, LinkedIn is one of the best places to make connections. Nearly one quarter of all Fortune 500 C-level execs have a profile there, and joining a group is one of the fastest ways to handpick virtual mentors and role models in your industry. A couple to try: Digital Marketing or Digital Marketing: Social Media, Search, Mobile and More.<br /><br />2. Attend a Digital Marketing Conference<br />There�s a digital marketing conference for just about every skill and niche, so pick the one that feeds your creativity and goals. Check out Pubcon for exposure to cutting-edge technology, new internet marketing strategies, social media marketing and more.<br /><br />For a content creation deep dive, visit the Copyblogger Authority Rainmaker conference, featuring a host of online marketing experts who cover topics like design, content, traffic and conversion. Another great option is &amp;Then (formerly DMA15), which brings a variety of marketing gurus together to share ideas and make connections.<br /><br />3. Track Your Successes<br />You could be a leading digital marketer in your company, but with nothing to prove it, you�re no different than your equally ambitious co-workers. Whether you�re selling your own product on the side or taking charge of an exceptionally challenging task at your day job, save your stats, feedback, email correspondence and other documentation that show you�re making a difference. Later, you�ll be able to leverage this in a job interview to prove you�ve got what it takes to grow a brand and connect with audiences.<br /><br /><br />4. Brush Up on Your Skills<br />Identify which of your skills need work, and hone them. A great way to improve is by taking a class. One to try is Mediabistro�s online course Fundamentals of Digital Marketing; you�ll learn how to integrate digital marketing into a brand�s overall strategy, develop a content strategy and more.<br /><br />Media Bistro is a job board and career resource for media, marketing and advertising professionals.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-68623393099578426972018-07-01T21:16:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:02.074-07:005 Digital Marketing Tips To Grow Your Startup In 2018<h2>5 Digital Marketing Tips To Grow Your Startup In 2018</h2>It�s a great achievement to be able to launch your own startup in this tightly packed global business industry. You dreamt big and coalesced resources, ideas, and action plan to create your nascent platform.<br /><br />A pat on the back for you, and a nudge on the other shoulder. You have yet to go stronger to grow stronger.<br /><br />In this fast-paced and influencing business industry, you need to take measures on establishing your brand name with a robust digital marketing strategy.<br /><br />Digital marketing is a powerful tool, can contribute powerfully to your online presence, and positively impact your bottom line.<br /><br />Everything you do to build your digital presence counts toward your brand name getting known. When you are known by your target audience, it will start affecting your bottom line.<br /><br />And one of the most effective ways to create a strong presence is by using digital media for your marketing needs.<br /><br />Here are 5 essential digital marketing tips for startups:<br />1. User experience<br />Your audience is what matters. Your audience must be able to engage with your brand name, your values, and your product, to build a lasting relationship and association with your company.<br /><br />Similarly, the audience is now more reflective and receptive when brands offer them unique user experience and brand value.<br /><br />Your digital marketing strategies must be designed carefully to appeal to the audience of your market. Delve into research and find out what works for your audience.<br /><br />Build their interest and knowledge by providing them with content that informs and inspires. You will also be able to strengthen the brand voice by continuously engaging with your audience.<br /><br />digital-marketing-tips-user-experience<br /><br />User experience can be made effective primarily through content, communication channels and intuitive UI.<br /><br />The loading speed of your website; the intuitive menu navigation; chatbots that assist in communication; and simplicity and tone of your content is key to a great user experience.<br /><br />In addition, you need to develop a client management strategy that helps you connect with your customers.<br /><br />This strategy will walk you through query and complaint management. Moreover, it will collect feedback for improvement and make your clients feel part of the brand community.<br /><br />For example, develop a series of simple FAQs and use them to respond to your audience and clients� queries on social media, via email, on phone, etc.<br /><br />If you are keen to getting involved more, digital world is full of new updates. Go ahead and search for more tips and trends on making a captivating user experience.<br /><br />2. Creative content<br />You will need to invest in a solid content marketing strategy that engages your audience. Create content that is unique and fresh as it can have a strong impact o your target market.<br /><br />From communicating your brand�s message to engaging your customers with information,&nbsp; content is supreme as it gives something useful to your potential customers.<br /><br />Great content can increase your organic traffic and can improve your search engine rankings.<br /><br />digital-marketing-creative-content<br /><br />Your audience is primarily looking for content that communicates value. Jeff Bulla says that you should use the 80/20 rule of creating and managing content.<br /><br />Get to the point!80% of your content should not be about your product � no, it doesn�t backfire at all � and 20% of it could be focused on your online sales, giveaways, etc.<br /><br />Messaging is also taking the industry by storm. Neil Patel shared how Facebook Messenger marketing campaign lends a bright inlet to effective digital marketing.<br /><br />Your audience will be more likely to follow a link received in Facebook Messenger than they would through email marketing campaign. Again, the content you create and the medium you choose to employ will greatly affect your business� growth. Learn more about Facebook Messenger bots here.<br /><br />3. Social media platforms<br />Your online presence and identity begins with your website and social media platforms. So you can engage your audience, communicate your message with powerful content through a strong social media platform.<br /><br />As a startup, one of the first things that you probably worked on was an active social media strategy.<br /><br />You know that in this business industry, social media is the key to leveraging your brand awareness and value.<br /><br />Apps like SnapChat and Instagram are becoming popular and engaging the audience with brand names.<br /><br />social media platforms for startups<br /><br />Be consistent and regular in your social media strategy and maximise your growth. Good social media strategies can have a profound impact on lead generation and conversions, brand awareness and, of course, better search engine ranking.<br /><br />And while social media platforms are effective and raging with success for startups and established brands, influencer marketing has seen a rise since 2016. This is like referrals that are convincing for the vast majority of social media users.<br /><br />Keep a watchful eye on who could be your brand�s influencers. Get in touch with them and engage them in helping you build your brand�s visibility.<br /><br />4. Video marketing is seeing an upward trend<br />Videos are powerful tools to communicate extensively. Consider Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and SnapChat stories to engage your audience.<br /><br />You can hold webinars and live events for product launches, hold tutorials, and answer questions in real time. This gives a tangible feeling to your audience and helps them connect more closely with your brand and product.<br /><br />digital-marketing-tips-video-marketing<br /><br />5. Search engine optimization<br />And most importantly, invest in a credible SEO solution. Conduct an SEO audit and find out how users are interacting with your website and social media platforms.<br /><br />SEO will look into aspects of your website and page optimization, device optimisation and credible link building for better visibility in search engine results.<br /><br />For example, in one of Google�s highly important updates, the websites that are not responsive on various digital devices will not appear in search altogether, regardless of their SEO measures!<br /><br />digital-marketing-tips-search-engine-optimization<br /><br />Once you understand the nature of association, outreach and impact of your brand�s SEO, rehash or redefine your digital marketing strategy accordingly.<br /><br />Understand how SEO works and learn about the expectations and prospects of hiring SEO specialists. This will help your startup to grow quicker. Be consistent and regular in your digital marketing strategy.<br /><br />Growth optimized<br />A good digital marketing strategy can act as a catalyst to business outreach, impact, and growth because it connects the audience with the business in real time, and hence, swifter than conventional marketing strategies.<br /><br />Resultantly, the conversion rates could be impacted positively as well. The consumer trend of trying new brands is growing if they are genuinely made to feel a connection with the brand values.<br /><br />Being consistent and regular in your digital marketing strategy will help you to increase your startup�s visibility most effectively.<br /><br />Moreover, engaging an effective, result-oriented team of SEO professionals will help you attract traffic to your brand�s online presence.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-61847461410643874292018-07-01T21:15:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:02.522-07:005 Digital Marketing Tips To Increase Your Brand's Growth Online And Improve Ad Results<h2>5 Digital Marketing Tips To Increase Your Brand's Growth Online And Improve Ad Results</h2><br />Companies spend a significant amount of time and money on advertising and marketing their brand�s products or services.<br /><br />It used to be that when you advertised on offline channels like TV and print, you just hoped for the best in terms of results. Now, with digital marketing and digital advertising you can track and tweak your ads for better performance as often as you need to. Unlike old-fashioned advertising, what I love about the digital world is it's real time tracking. You can monitor and make improvements instantly, or adjust creative to a different media channel and that�s it�you�re done! This means you don�t have to shoot that commercial all over again if it�s not driving results, or you don�t need to re-create and republish a new print advertisement when you want to make a change. With digital advertising, you simply adjust the content as needed and you�re ready to go.<br /><br />While the benefits of digital advertising can seem endless, as a brand how can you make sure you�re maximizing performance and boosting ROI? When implementing digital advertising campaigns, there are certain best practices to keep in mind to garner the best results possible. I�ve outlined these guidelines below and provided some simple steps to explain how these tactics can be integrated quickly and efficiently into your digital ad campaigns and day-to-day digital marketing:<br /><br />Clear Calls-To-Action<br /><br />Buy Now, Book A Flight, Request A Quote--Whatever next step you want the user to take (which is typically the objective of your campaign) should be vibrantly displayed in your content.<br /><br />Every successful advertising campaign contains a clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA). This �button� tells the user what the next step is and is how they get from the advertisement back to your site, moving them further down the funnel and closer to the point of conversion.<br /><br />When it comes to selecting a CTA, you want to focus on language that is relevant to your brand, service or products, and completely obvious to the user. Anything ambiguous can confuse the user, and even if they click on the CTA, arriving at an onsite page that doesn�t meet their expectations won�t result in a conversion. That being said, you want to avoid generic language like �learn more� or �read more��while this can be relevant to what you�re promoting, it isn�t unique to your brand, or even your industry.<br /><br />&nbsp;Jet Blue's digital ads feature compelling call-to-actions and unique messaging.<br />Image Credit: Jet Blue<br />Jet Blue's digital ads feature compelling call-to-actions and unique messaging.<br /><br />JetBlue uses language tailored to their industry and brand in their digital ads, as seen above.<br /><br />In the example below, Sotheby�s has a beautiful digital ad campaign that promotes different destinations. The imagery is striking (another must-have for successful digital advertising), the text is readable, and it�s ultimately a clean design. However, there is no real CTA. As a user, I could of course click on the ad and be directed to their site, but there is no real incentive to do so and no real button showing me what step to take next. Simply adding a CTA button to this ad would likely improve the performance of these campaigns and result in higher conversions.<br /><br />&nbsp;One of Sotheby's digital advertisements is featured here.<br />Image Credit: Sotheby's International Realty<br />One of Sotheby's digital advertisements is featured here.<br /><br />Compelling Messaging<br />It should come as no surprise that messaging is important. With any digital platform, messaging is critical as it�s the core communication with a potential customer. In terms of digital advertising, when you don�t have a ton of copy space or even time to capture user attention it�s important that messaging be compelling and, most importantly, succinct.<br /><br />You lose the attention of most digital users in just a few seconds. That limited period of time is all that you have to capture interest. Stick to messaging that evokes emotion or encourages users to click through the ad, and keep it to just a short phrase. For many brands, this means highlighting their value proposition, showcasing their core values, or defining an incentive for the user.<br /><br />&nbsp;Biotherm uses compelling messaging to encourage users to make a purchase.<br />Image Credit: Biotherm<br />Biotherm uses compelling messaging to encourage users to make a purchase.<br /><br />In the example above, Biotherm incentivizes the experience for the potential customer. Their core message �Enjoy Free Shipping + 25% Off All Orders� captures the user�s attention and for someone already interested in their products, it�s likely to be that last added touch to convert. For all brands, this is an incredibly well done ad to take notes from. If you�re running a retargeting campaign where the user has already visited your site, for example, this type of incentivization could not only help you stay top of mind as the potential customer navigates other sites, but can serve as the final touchpoint before the user finally makes the purchase.<br /><br />Designated Landing Pages<br />Whatever the content you�re advertising is related to, you should always drive users to a page that is relevant to that content. This simple step will help to keep users on your site, offer a better user experience, and ultimately improve conversion rate.<br /><br />If you�re an athletics brand and you�re advertising women�s running shoes in an AdWords campaign, sending users to your women�s running shoes page will help facilitate the conversion process. The more relevant the page is that you drive clicks to, the greater likelihood that the user will follow though and convert. After all, your advertisement has captured that user�s attention enough that they clicked on the ad, so the likelihood is they want more information pertaining to that specific subject � not general information you�d find about your brand and entire line of athletic attire on your homepage.<br /><br />Play Video<br />Sending users to your homepage instead of a designated landing page that is correlated to the particular campaign can be a costly mistake. Users generally won�t search your site for the item they�re looking for. As a brand, bringing the potential customer as close as possible to their unique needs and the point of conversion is not only the best approach, but also the best user experience.<br /><br />Imagery Matters<br />For each of your digital campaigns, it�s essential that you think about where you�re serving users with these ads. The likelihood is that the ad will appear while the user is absorbing other content somewhere else online, so the way your ad appears visually is important.<br /><br />Using high-quality imagery that is telling as to what the ad promotes is one of the most important features for all successful digital advertising campaigns. Failure to use imagery that is captivating or visually appealing doesn�t help capture the user�s attention. In the example below, Waldorf Astoria uses beautiful photos of their resorts to advertise to a targeted set of users. Not only does this stand out as the user scrolls through the page, it truly sparks interest.<br /><br />&nbsp;Waldorf Astoria's beautiful imagery helps to enhance ad effectiveness.<br />Image Credit: Waldorf Astoria<br />Waldorf Astoria's beautiful imagery helps to enhance ad effectiveness.<br /><br />For brands in the B2B space, or in industries where imagery may not be as �naturally� beautiful as a beachfront resort, there are still options. Focus on imagery that is bold, clean, and compelling. In a lot of ways, imagery should tell the story your brand is trying to convey and give the user a solid expectation of what you have to offer. This is especially important for new or potential customers who may not be familiar with your brand. If the imagery in your ads doesn�t stand out, they may not even recognize your brand or your products if they see them later on a different platform.<br /><br />Test, Monitor, And Test Again<br />You�ve probably heard it said many times, that for any marketing channel, testing the effectiveness of your efforts is important. When you�re running digital advertising campaigns, this is no exception. Without monitoring your campaigns, how are you able to identify areas to continue focusing on versus areas for improvement?<br /><br />Sometimes, seemingly arbitrary factors like time of day, language choice, audience segment, or image selection can really play a role in the success of your campaigns. For that reason, it�s critical that you pay attention to these factors and monitor which campaigns have which varying elements. If you�re finding success with one campaign, or finding an alternate campaign to be less effective, don�t be afraid to change it. A/B testing with digital ads, where you test ads with varying content, can be incredibly valuable when determining which messaging or content resonates best with your audience�and often for reasons you can�t foresee.<br /><br />Also, testing your ads before you implement them is critical. More times than I�d like, I�ve seen brands with fantastic ads pointing to the wrong pages, 404 pages, or with messaging targeted to an audience that I�m mistakenly segmented in. Take the time to make sure your ads appear as they should and direct users to the right pages. When little mistakes like this happen, not only have you wasted the resources spent for this particular campaign, you�ve also adversely impacted the user-experience. This extra moment of testing can save your company a lot of money in the long run.<br /><br />Driving Results With Digital Ad Campaigns<br /><br />In this day and age, digital advertising holds a ton of potential. For most brands, it�s one of the most effective ways to get your company, products or services in front of a qualified and targeted user. However, if you�re not following the right guidelines to make your digital advertising as impactful as possible, the likelihood is that you won�t garner the results you�d most like to see. Keep in mind the above tips when crafting your campaigns and optimizing your conversion rate.<br /><br />To learn more about digital advertising and how to implement simple fixes that drive results, visit Blue Fountain Media online.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-48157642725449082042018-07-01T21:14:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:02.974-07:00 4 Simple Digital Marketing Tips That Work<h2>4 Simple Digital Marketing Tips That Work</h2><div><div><br /></div><div><div>These digital marketing strategies increase your business's online visibility and establish an ongoing connection with customers.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's no question that digital marketing is vital to the success of your business. The decline of traditional online advertising has pushed businesses to utilize growing online technologies to reach customers. Gone are the days of surface-level advertisements � today, digital marketing is focused on reaching and creating a connection with consumers.</div><div><br /></div><div>When used correctly, digital marketing allows your business to target and reach its market, accounting for new customers, more sales, and long-term growth. However, the complexity of digital technologies can make it hard to determine the right strategy for your business.</div><div><br /></div><div>Use these four tips to optimize your business's digital marketing plan.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep your SEO up-to-date.</div><div>We now live in a world which is constantly updating with different trends, movements and new information. This becomes a vital factor in search engine optimization, as even Google updates its algorithm more than 100 times annually. With that in mind, it's essential to keep your SEO up-to-date to ensure that your product or service is visible online and reaching its market.</div><div><br /></div><div>Update your SEO techniques once a quarter. Pay special attention to your keywords and the number of searches they generate per month. Find keywords that boost your business, and keep track of any changes in the search engine cycle. To determine the number of searches for a particular keyword, use Google's Keyword Planner.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Utilize the blogging movement.</div><div>Every day, new content becomes available online that has the potential to decrease your business's visibility. To stay on top of the digital marketing game, utilize blogging to your advantage.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Posting content that's valuable and relevant to your market helps drive traffic to your business's website and social media pages. Ninety-one percent of consumers are more likely to buy from an authentic brand than a generic one. Posting content gives your consumers a sense of your brand's authenticity and personality, further strengthening the bonds between your brand and customers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember, each post you create is one more indexed page on your website, which increases your business's visibility online and indicates to search engines that your website is active, helping your content rise to the top of search engine results.</div><div><br /></div><div>Keep your content mobile friendly.</div><div>Being ahead in digital marketing means being accessible across all digital platforms. Your marketing content might look great on a desktop, but check that it's presented just as well on a mobile device. To ensure your website is mobile friendly, look at the size of images, content placement and URL structure.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the fast-moving pace of today's online business landscape, a small nuisance can result in a lost customer. Ensure that your online content is easily recognizable, accessible and engaging across all devices. By doing so, your business appears more polished and legitimate to consumers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Use email in your business's digital marketing.&nbsp;</div><div>Email has become a vital platform for correspondence between individuals and businesses. Further, with the rise of mobile applications, consumers can now access their emails easier than ever. Since 2014, email open rates have increased by 180 percent on mobile devices, cementing email as a less-costly alternative to other forms of mobile notifications (such as text messages).&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Using email in your digital marketing strategy increases your reach and allows for another opportunity to connect with your customers � especially since your message can be personalized, accessed on multiple devices, and you have more space to convey your message.</div><div><br /></div><div>Emails reach your consumers directly without being intrusive (as a text might seem). Most importantly, email is a reminder to your customers about your brand, thus increasing your business's prominence.</div><div><br /></div><div>What is most significant in your digital marketing plan is establishing a good relationship with your customer base � and to do that, remember to prioritize your brand's authenticity and personality in your communications.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your brand should � most importantly � engage and connect with your audience. The above digital marketing strategies allow you to build on that, increasing your business's visibility and reach in addition to establishing an ongoing connection with your customers.</div></div></div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-69928437865363020842018-07-01T21:12:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:03.434-07:008 Simple Digital Marketing Tips Your Competitors Probably Don�t Know<h2>8 Simple Digital Marketing Tips Your Competitors Probably Don�t Know</h2><br />Are you feeling like you�re lagging behind the competition?<br /><br />As a small business owner, it�s all too easy to feel this way. After all, you aren�t a big company that can afford to hire an army of digital marketers to keep up with all the latest digital marketing tips.<br /><br />But, that doesn�t mean you can�t become a one man/one woman army.<br /><br />Your weapons are your knowledge. After you read this article, you�ll be able to pick up your weapons and beat your competitors!<br /><br />There are many different weapons (digital marketing tips) that can carry you to success.<br /><br />But most of your competitors don�t know how to wield them.<br /><br />This article will focus on the most popular digital marketing tips. They�re popular because they work. But only if you know why, how, and when to use them.<br /><br />But first, let�s address a rookie way of thinking that many small business owners have.<br /><br />1. Eggs In Too Many Baskets<br />This is a mistake that many rookie business owners make � trying to do everything at once with little prior experience.<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />You set up 10 social media accounts. You set up a PPC campaign. You set up a rigorous blogging schedule about a topic that you haven�t properly researched into yet.<br /><br />And the worst thing is that you�ve never even used more than half of those social media platforms in the past!<br /><br />Sound familiar?<br /><br />If so, then stop. The worst mistake a new business owner can make is trying to manage too many new social media accounts all at once. We�ll get to that mistake in the next section.<br /><br />But for now, the lesson we want you to understand is: less is more. When you�re just starting out, focus and consistency should be your primary goals.<br /><br />Focus: if you try to launch several campaigns at once, you�ll not only be totally overwhelmed, but you�ll also have difficulty determining which marketing campaigns were successful.<br /><br />Consistency: this will be the key to getting your business off the ground.<br /><br />Being consistent on social media will build you a loyal following.<br />Being consistent in your blogging will build you a loyal customer base and turn new, cold prospects into new buyers.<br />Being consistent in SEO means that you�ll save money in the long run instead of relying too much on paid advertising.<br />Too many small business owners try to do everything at once and fall flat on their faces.<br /><br />But you don�t have to be one of them. By following these digital marketing tips, you�ll already be ahead of the game.<br /><br />2. Find Your Place in Social Media<br />Most small business owners know that they need to be on social media. After all, social media isn�t going anywhere. In 2017, 81% of Americans had a social media profile!<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />But as we touched on in the last section, too many rookies take that message too much to heart and try to go from being invisible to being everywhere at once.<br /><br />For most brands, this is a recipe for disaster.<br /><br />As a new small business owner, your aim should be to find your place on social media. This means that in the beginning you should focus only on, at the most, a few social media platforms that you�re already feeling comfortable with.<br /><br />Now, after marketing on these platforms for a while, note how many interactions you�re getting.<br /><br />For example, if Instagram isn�t giving you any engagement, then move on and focus on the platform that does!<br /><br />The aim here is to find the social media platforms that give you the highest level of interactions (likes, shares and comments).<br /><br />And the lesson here is: don�t bother wasting your time on a platform if your audience simply isn�t there!<br /><br />Find out where most of your audience is and post on those platforms consistently to build up a loyal social media following.<br /><br />3. Influencer Marketing<br />Influencer marketing is relatively new in the realm of digital marketing tips. In fact, most of your competition has probably never heard of it!<br /><br />And for the ones who have, they�re probably going about it the wrong way.<br /><br />But influencer marketing can be a very powerful tool when wielded correctly.<br /><br />Free eBook: Triple Your Traffic through Digital Marketing<br /><br />Enter your email address<br />Download Now<br />So what exactly is influencer marketing?<br /><br />Simply put, it means that instead of marketing to your target audience directly, you pay or inspire influential people in your niche to get the word out about you.<br /><br />When it comes to social media users, influencers are basically the strongest referrals that your business can get.<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />For example, a survey by Collective Bias showed that 30% of consumers are more likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger.<br /><br />Influencer marketing is especially effective on millennials, since 70% of consumer millennials are influenced by the recommendations of their peers in making buying decisions.&nbsp;<br /><br />So, you should always keep a look out for potential future influencers in your niche. You�ll want to engage with them so that you can build your brand visibility.<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />So what do other small business owners get wrong with influencer marketing, you ask?<br /><br />Many small business owners still think that doing lots of guest blogging (a form of influencer marketing) and getting lots of backlinks will boost SEO and drive traffic.<br /><br />This was true in the past, but not anymore. Small business owners these days have to tread carefully with guest blogging and getting backlinks because Google has cracked down on this practice several times in the past. Google penalizes websites that abuse this practice, and that�s not what you want for your brand new website!<br /><br />Now that�s not to say that guest blogging is inherently a bad practice. Far from it! But it shouldn�t be done in a spammy way. Instead, it should be done with the main goals in mind being:<br /><br />Brand promotion.<br />Building credibility by leaning on the shoulders of industry giants.<br />Tapping into another community.<br />4. Don�t Underestimate Having an Email List<br />An email list is probably one of the most valuable and responsive assets you can have.<br /><br />Valuable � CRM software company Hatchbuck found that customers who purchase products through email spend 138% more!<br />Responsive � according to QuickSprout, email subscribers are 3x more likely to share content on social media!<br />And unlike your social media followers and fans, you own your email marketing list.<br /><br />But believe it or not, many of your competitors aren�t even thinking about having an email list. Instead they make the mistake of thinking that they can get away with just building a social media following.<br /><br />Of course having a strong social media following is very important! But when it comes to turning cold prospects into paying customers, email marketing is one of the best ways to do it.<br /><br />5. The 80-20 Rule for Content<br />The 80-20 rule means that 80% of your success will come from 20% of your efforts. This rule applies to just about everything, including your content. Your content can be created in a variety of different mediums.<br /><br />For example: videos, webinars, blog posts, infographics, etc.<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />So how does the 80-20 rule apply?<br /><br />Quite simply, 80% of your content should communicate VALUE, and 20% of it should be focused on promotions. Valuable content means content that�s unique, fresh, timely, relevant, and solves real problems for your target audience.<br /><br />Your success will come from 20% of your efforts, but that other 80% is necessary to drive it!<br /><br />Too many small business owners have it the other way around. 80% of their blog content is overly sales-y, and only 20% of it contains useful or valuable information!<br /><br />If you aren�t convinced about the value of creating useful content, then take a moment to reflect on the fact that businesses with blogs receive 67% more leads than businesses without blogs.<br /><br />Other benefits of having a blog include:<br /><br />Getting more targeted traffic.<br />Adds a human element to your brand, thus building trust and loyalty with your customers.<br />Cost effective and simple to setup.<br />6. When to Rely On SEO<br />Every small business owner who ventures into the world of digital marketing tips has heard about SEO.<br /><br />But still, many of them shy away from it because they think it�s complicated and too time consuming.<br /><br />While both of these things may be true, SEO is still the best way to drive free traffic to your website.<br /><br />Even something as simple as your business name can influence your ranking in the search engine. According to an SEO company Local SEO Guide, businesses with a strong keyword in their business name rank 1.5 spots higher than businesses without a keyword in their business name.<br /><br />Instead of focusing on a long term SEO strategy, too many small businesses blow their digital marketing budget on PPC ads when starting out. We�ll talk more about that in the next section.<br /><br />So what are the different areas that SEO covers?<br /><br />digital marketing tips<br /><br />There are a lot. But broadly speaking, these are the main ones:<br /><br />Website optimization.<br />Page optimization.<br />Device optimization.<br />Credible link building.<br />There are many other sub categories of these main areas. For example, keyword usage is a sub category of page optimization.<br /><br />There�s a lot to learn. But learning and implementing SEO will give your website better visibility in the search engines.<br /><br />And to get an idea of how important SEO is for website visibility, you can look at past Google updates. One very important Google update made websites that aren�t responsive on various digital devices not even appear in the search results at all!<br /><br />Now thankfully, you don�t have to learn SEO all on your own because you know an SEO agency (your friends at LYFE Marketing).<br /><br />But you should still learn the basics of SEO and what the expectations of an SEO specialist will be.<br /><br />Hiring an SEO specialist is well worth it. The SEO specialist will help you perform an SEO audit, which includes analyzing how users are interacting with your website and your social media platforms.<br /><br />And finally, don�t expect immediate traffic from doing SEO. It can happen, but it�s pretty rare. Instead, look to paid advertising for quick traffic.<br /><br />7. When to Use Paid Advertising<br />As we touched on in the previous section, many small business owners spend too much of their working capital on PPC. They have the right idea � spend money on paid advertising in the beginning to get some traffic coming in.<br /><br />But in the absence of a sales funnel and a long term SEO strategy, they begin to rely on PPC to drive most of their sales. This is not a sustainable digital marketing method on its own.<br /><br />Their mistake is that they end up confusing �more traffic� with �more sales.�<br /><br />But all they end up doing is getting more cold prospects and no sales.&nbsp; And in PPC advertising where you pay for each click, this can get expensive if you aren�t making conversions from your clicks.<br /><br />More traffic is a great thing, but without a marketing funnel, you won�t get optimal results.<br /><br />Instead, you should follow these 3 simple steps:<br /><br />Create a relevant and compelling offer. For example, your newsletter or a free eBook.<br />Create great website content.<br />Create targeted PPC ads to get people to your site.<br />Remember one of the most important digital marketing tips � traffic isn�t everything.<br /><br />An amateur mistake is to expect to turn cold prospects into immediate buyers. Bring them in first, and then convert them into buyers later.<br /><br />8. Enhance the User�s Experience<br />Enhancing user experience (UX) will be the glue that holds each of your strategies together.<br /><br />The following are common and popular ways to do this. There are also plenty more metrics and digital marketing tips for measuring user experience.<br /><br />The content on your site.<br />The communication channels you use.<br />An intuitive user interface (UI).<br />Your website�s loading speed.<br />Intuitive menu navigation.<br />Chatbots to assist in communication.<br />A simple tone for your content.<br />In order to make the optimal choices for these different areas, you�ll need to learn more about your target audience.<br /><br />There are three key digital marketing tips to remember for creating a good user experience in 2018:<br /><br />Remember to inform and inspire your audience with your content. This will give them a lasting impression of your company and make engagement easier.<br />You�ll also need a customer management strategy to help you connect better with customers. It will take you through query and complaint management. It will also collect customer feedback and make them feel like they�re a part of your brand�s community.<br />Another thing to keep in mind in 2018 is the effectiveness of video marketing. It continues to trend upward in popularity with the rise of live streaming. Popular platforms have already embraced live streaming. Consider Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat Stories to engage with your audience.<br />Conclusion<br />As you can see, the best way you can get ahead of your competition is to use the tried and true ways of digital marketing properly. Your competitors will keep on making the same mistakes, while you�ll be sidestepping landmines and growing your business with these 8 digital marketing tips.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-11345404267349135752018-06-19T23:21:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:03.891-07:005 Tips for Making the Most of Digital Asset ManagementCreative teams today are dealing with more distribution channels, more file formats, and more specialized digital requests than ever before. Ask yourself how many times per week you encounter the following questions:<br /><br />Can you resize, reformat, download, upload, or email the company logo to me?<br />I can�t find the original image we used in our spring campaign. Do I need to repurchase it?<br />Hey, where is the latest version of our new homepage banner?<br />How many pieces did we create for last year�s holiday campaign � and in what sizes?<br />Do we have international usage rights for this image?<br />Can you help me find the layered PSD file for this project, or will I have to recreate it?<br />The answers to all of these pesky questions can be found in digital asset management (DAM), an absolute necessity for teams that create, manage, deliver, and archive hundreds or thousands of digital assets every year.<br /><br />Many companies wonder why they�d need such a thing. After all, they already use Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Adobe Creative Cloud, not to mention internal servers and hard drives.<br /><br />And that�s exactly the problem. According to McKinsey Global Institute, the average worker spends almost 20% of each workweek � 1 day out of every 5 � searching for and gathering information from disparate locations and sources. Implementing a single repository for all digital assets can save hours of time per worker per week. In fact, 73% of top performing content marketers rely on centralized assets and content.<br /><br />Transferring your entire archive of PSD, AI, PNG, MOV and other files to a cloud-based system is no small initiative, but the following five tips will set you up for success.<br /><br />1. Get Stakeholder Buy In<br /><br />Identifying and engaging with your key stakeholders � everyone who creates, manages or needs access to digital files � is an essential step in the process. The more champions you have lobbying for the successful use of your DAM system, the more likely you are to achieve widespread adoption.<br /><br />Don�t be afraid to tout some of the lesser-known benefits of DAM software, such as the ability to:<br /><br />Convert files (from PSD to web-friendly PNGs, JPEGs, or high-res PDFs for example) right in the DAM, with one click.<br />Publish images to your web channels or social media sites directly from the DAM.<br />Share assets through a direct link, a download link, or as a collection, without having to rely on an FTP server, email attachment, or USB drive.<br />Control access and keep files safe with different levels of access and permissions.<br />Set assets to expire, so outdated brand materials aren�t continuously used, seasonal content becomes inaccessible, and rights-managed images are unavailable past a certain date.<br />Capture metadata (like file type and color type) directly from where the asset is created.<br />Find what you need in seconds using filters and searchable keywords.<br />Control your brand with centralized branding guidelines, approved versions of logos and other assets, and automatic expirations and notifications.<br />Don�t settle for a solution that doesn�t offer all of the above.<br /><br />2. Choose the Right Solution<br /><br />Surprisingly, almost half (48%) of creative teams don�t have any form of digital asset management system in place. And of the 52% who do, many are using outdated, on-premises solutions that lack the flexibility to keep up with current tech trends (like the social media explosion), not to mention integrating with other marketing technology.<br /><br />Whether you�re upgrading or implementing a solution for the first time, get fully acquainted with your team�s specific requirements before selecting a vendor. First, understand the types of assets (images, audio, video) you need to manage, then enlist the help of your IT team to determine your functional needs (search, file conversion, distribution) and IT requirements (security, hosting, platform).<br /><br />3. Don�t Skimp on Training<br /><br />Everyone who will be touching the DAM solution � from sales and marketing to finance and HR � should be trained on how to use it. Provide in-depth, comprehensive training for the system admins who will be naming and adding new files, organizing assets, setting expiration dates, capturing metadata, and more. You�ll have to define your naming conventions, folder hierarchies, and required metadata fields in advance of this training.<br /><br />Regular system users, on the other hand, only need to know how to find files, access the DAM from mobile devices, distribute files to clients and customers, and create collections for ease of collaboration.<br /><br />Also consider assigning one or more individuals from your group to act as a �Digital Asset Manager� or �Librarian,� who will be tasked with consistently cataloguing and updating information in the database. This can help prevent key information from being omitted or misspelled � errors that can make it difficult to locate important assets in the future.<br /><br />4. Integrate with Other Solutions<br /><br />Your DAM solution should support integration with other IT systems, eCommerce systems, content management systems, websites, intranet sites, project management solutions, and design software like Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. And don�t forget Single Sign-On, which conveniently allows employees to use their existing credentials to access the system.<br /><br />These integrations can�t happen all at once, so prioritize which ones are most important to your organization, and tackle them gradually. For example, if third-party marketing platforms are especially essential, start there. Imagine the time your team will save once they can access DAM assets directly from the platforms they�re already using for automation, blogging, e-mails, and social.<br /><br />5. Hold Everyone Accountable<br /><br />With any new software solution, adoption can be a problem. People are used to the old way of doing things, and it takes time for them to adapt to new processes.<br /><br />Luckily, it�s fairly easy to set up a process for inserting completed assets into the DAM. In fact, many systems allow you to create a pre-built workflow that automatically sends completed, approved files into the proper folder structure. It�s like magic.<br /><br />But for those who are merely looking for assets and not creating and uploading them, a little bit of accountability may be in order. Stakeholders who are used to emailing a designer for the latest logo or banner size may need to be reminded once or twice of the power they now have at their fingertips. Once they realize that accessing the DAM takes less time than writing an email and waiting for the designer to reply with an attached JPEG, they�ll quickly comply.<br /><br />***<br /><br />If your team is among the 48% who are organizing their digital files using technology designed in the last century, a DAM system will bring you racing into the present. Imagine a world where your designers simply create assets in a couple of universal sizes and upload them to one central repository, before moving on to the next high-value project. Meanwhile, that one guy in HR who needs a black-and-white version of the logo as a .PNG file can open the DAM solution and get it himself. That world is well within reach.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-34126096197435981722018-06-19T23:20:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:04.343-07:003 Tips to Boost Adoption of Your New Digital Asset Management SystemThe amazing benefits of the best Digital Asset Management system will deliver very little value if no one uses it. But it�s challenging to get individual users to believe those benefits are worth the trouble of changing how they work. And that means thinking carefully about the costs, benefits, and learning required for your users.<br /><br />Everyone knows that adoption of a new product requires the benefits of the new to outweigh the costs of switching. But don�t forget that as the change agent, you see what could be more clearly and value it more highly, relative to the status quo. Your users see the situation in reverse, with the status quo as the point of reference, and fear what they may lose much more than what they may gain. A great deal of psychology research has shown that change agents overvalue new benefits by 3x and users overvalue status quo benefits by 3x, for a total gap of 9x between innovators and the users they must convince.<br /><br />If you have a 9x adoption hurdle to clear, what can you do? The best thing to do is to choose very carefully.<br /><br />My new complementary eBook, Avoid the DAM Value Trap: 10 Key Questions Your DAM Vendor Doesn�t Want You to Ask, includes three key questions you should investigate carefully before choosing your vendor:<br /><br />How much behavior change is needed to get people on board? The less day-to-day behavior change you ask of your team, the less they�ll perceive that they�re giving something up, and the easier it will be to get them on board. People will resist changing two things most: where they store content, and how they work with it.<br />Are the benefits enticing enough to attract end users? What do casual users get out of changing what they do today? For most users, the core functionality of DAM is finding approved assets, but unless the DAM is easier to search than a stock image catalog or sending an email request, people will continue buying the same stock over and over and hassling your digital asset managers and agencies for the content they need.<br />How easy is it to learn the new system? Many legacy DAM systems were designed in an age where training meant large user manuals and on-site training courses. But today�s implementation and user teams don�t learn that way. In the age of consumerized enterprise software, YouTube and DIY, ease of use and ease of learning are critical to adoption.<br />Check out the ebook to learn more about what to look for and how to test vendors on each of these three topics!<br /><br />(Adapted from the Nuxeo blog)Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-80559750394159858762018-06-19T05:56:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:04.797-07:00Digital Marketing Training and JobsThe Digital Skills Gap<br />Digital Marketing is changing constantly and the pace of change continues to increase. �Digital Marketing� also covers such a wide range if disciplines, including very broad topics like Social Media, which means that the need for these skills is impacting on a wide range of roles well beyond marketers. Managers of all types need to understand the impact that new technologies may have on their organisations, and pretty much every member of staff will need to understand the fundamentals of the web and social media. As such, increasing numbers of people are looking to improve their skills and trying and keep them up to date. In this report we�ll explore the best ways of improving your own skills or how you can help your team to improve their skills, we�ll then look at the best ways of keeping this skills up to date and relevant.<br /><br />Digital Marketing Training and Jobs<br />Digital Skills Search VolumeSearches for Digital Marketing Jobs (Red), Digital Marketing Courses (Yellow) and Digital Marketing Training (Blue) in Google from Google Trends<br /><br />It�s interesting to note that the level of searches for digital marketing jobs is far higher, but pretty much inline, with the searches for digital training and courses. You can also see in the word cloud below (form the excellent Brandwatch social media analysis tool), that when we analysed a huge range of terms related to the topic, the most popular terms related to training and job roles (and interestingly work/life balance, which we�ll return to later!).<br /><br />Digital Skills Word CloudWord cloud showing most often mentioned phrases over a 1month period related to digital skills. Brandwatch<br /><br />Global Digital Marketing Skills Shortage<br />Global Digital Skills Activity MapGlobal mentions over 61 days of terms related to digital skills on social media. Brandwatch<br /><br /><br /><br />The global chart doesn�t show any great surprises, with English speaking countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia having the highest level of conversations, but many european countries are also discussing digital skills in English. This reflects our practical experience that many people are struggling to find training in the own region an are traveling to the UK for training. We can also see the huge demand for improving knowledge in India, as we have seen based on the Likes and engagement we get on our Digital Marketing Podcast page in Facebook.<br /><br />Digital Skills Mentions by DayMost active days of the week to engage around digital skills related topics. Brandwatch<br /><br />Digital Skills Mentions by HourMost active time of day to engage around digital skills related topics. Brandwatch<br /><br />The insights of day of week and time of day are inline with our previous research and practical experience. That is, that people are using their morning commute time to try and improve their skills via blogs, podcast, Tweets,etc and that upon reaching work, particularly on a Monday morning, one of the first things that many of us do is search for a new job! This actual makes perfect sense, as once you are sick of your job, Monday mornings are generally the toughest part of the week! What actionable insights can we take from this? First of all, if you are sending a recruitment message, do it on a Monday morning. Secondly, educational content around job skills works first thing in the morning, so we can absorb it when we travel. You can also see a peak at weekends, when people may take some time out to try and improve their skills. We�ve experienced this first hand with our Digital Marketing Podcast, seeing peaks of listens first thing in the morning and at weekends.<br /><br />Digital Marketing Training: The Solutions<br />Having delivered thousands of hours of digital marketing training and running an organisation that specialises in improving digital capability within organisations, I have seen and tried pretty much every approach to improving digital skills. Below you�ll find a summary of each approach and its positives, and challenges. You�ll then find some more in-depth analysis and commentary below this for each approach.<br /><br />Approach<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Description<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Positives<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Challenges<br />Classroom<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Face to face training normally delivered over half-day and day periods.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Immersive and interactive.Lots of creative options for exercises and interaction.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Very dependant on quality of trainer and other attendees.Implementation of learning after event.Time/Travel commitment.<br />Qualifications<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Series of formalised activities and study followed by assessment and qualification award.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Good for demonstrating commitment and knowledge.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Learning vs. passing assessment.Recency of content.Time commitment and potential costs.<br />Elearning/ Online Interactive<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Interactive online training.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Learn at your own pace.Cross device and location independent.Lots of interaction and tracking options.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Getting adoption from teams.Lots of low quality suppliers.<br />Webinar/ Real-Time Online<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Interactive online training in real time.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Ability to interact as well as listen/watch.Location independant.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Quality of interaction.Technology challenges.<br />Workshop/ Hackathon<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Interactive, output focusses, face to face sessions.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Focus on hands on experience.Lots of interactive options.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Complex organisation.Smaller maximum group size.<br />Conference<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Series of shorter topic focus speakers and training sessions.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Networking opportunities.Range of speakers.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Training becoming sales pitches.Variable quality of speakers.<br />Seminar<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Shorter face to face training session.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Short time commitment.<br />Creative delivery options.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Travel commitment.Availability.<br />Informal Learning<br /><br />Podcasts<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Audio training.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Don�t need to be in font of computer.<br />Can be used when travelling/multi-tasking.<br /><br />Technology adoption.<br />Lack of easy interaction.<br /><br />Video<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Video training.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Suited to many peoples learning styles.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Not always easy to multitask so not suited travel.<br />Lots of low quality content.<br /><br />Blogs/ Reports<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Written content.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bite size learning.<br />Huge range of sources and content.<br /><br />Filtering of content.<br />Variable quality.<br /><br />eBooks<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Long form written content.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Topic focussed and in-depth content.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Time commitment.<br />Lack of easy filtering.<br /><br />Niche topics not covered.<br /><br />Classroom Based Digital Marketing Training<br />Face to face training is still the king of training options in my opinion, as it offers a range of advantages that you just can�t get elsewhere. The level of interaction available, ability to share and develop ideas and the immersive experience of face to face training still can�t be 100% replaced by any online trading options currently available. However, the training is extremely dependant on the quality and experience of the trainer and the experience will also be impacted by other attendees.<br /><br />The Digital Marketing courses currently on the market generally break down into two key options. Fastracks or generalist courses intend to build a wide range of digital skills over a day or number of days. Obviously what you can learn in a fixed period of time across a broad range of topics will be limited, but we have seen excellent results from 1-5 days courses. The most popular options are 2 and 3 day courses but these represent a significant time commitment.<br /><br />Deep dive course are focussed on a particular topic and allow you develop more in-depth skills. My general advice on these is look for delivery by a practitioner. No end of theory can come close to hands on experience and you�ll learn from their hard earned skills. Also look for courses that have clearly defined outcomes and takeaways, as this will make it more likely you�ll actually implement things when you get back to work.<br /><br />The biggest challenge of face to face learning are the time commitments and costs. As well as these fairly obviously challenges you probably also need to think about how often the course material is updated and how you will stay up to date after the session. In reality no one training solution is perfect and you need to combine them effectively to improve skills and then stay up to date. We talk about this approach of mixing approaches in the final section covering Blended Learning.<br /><br />Digital Marketing Qualifications<br />There are an increasing number of qualifications options available, but be very careful. Although higher education organisations and official institutes can deliver officially accredited qualifications, there are a huge range of organisations offering their own �accredited� courses. Many of these courses are only accredited by the organisation themselves, and offer no guarantee of the quality of the course.<br /><br />In reality there are also challenges to the well established educational organisations. The way that many academic and official institutes work is not well suited to the fast moving world of digital marketing, and some qualifications and accreditations are hopelessly out of date. However some of the smarter organisations have partnered with real-world practitioners to help solve this problem.<br /><br />Another key consideration is why have you chosen to do a qualification rather than other forms of training. The key answer is generally for recognition and having something that you can put on your CV/resume and that will demonstrate your knowledge and commitment to learning. This is perfectly valid, but you need to be wary of the learning vs. just trying to pass the course. Because of the time pressure we experience when doing a qualification, our key focus is often just passing, and this can be at the cost of learning effectively. Very often qualifications are best followed up with a personalised ongoing blended learning plan.<br /><br />Elearning/Online Interactive Training<br />Interactive online training aims to each you skills in your own time in an interactive way that is easily digestible and help you track your own progress. There is a problem though, and a pretty fundamental one. Most elearning is terrible! Due to the fact that it is often used to deliver training that is repeated again and again, it ends up being used for topics like health and safety, that most people don�t find very interesting (sorry to those of you that do!) and it is produced badly. It can be too long, dull and an awful lot of what is currently available is pretty patronising in tone.<br /><br />Its absolutely possible to deliver excellent elearning but it needs to be easily digestible, interactive, easy to understand and help you to track your own learning. We obvious believe this, as our online digital marketing courses are&nbsp; one of the key parts of our business, but we�ve tested this content on thousand of people globally, and if you get it right it can work very effectively.<br /><br />The other challenge of elearning is that custom elearning can be expensive to produce and take a long time to get to market. Again this is why we developed an �off the shelf� approach that is added to every month. Make sure you are clear on production costs and timescales if you go down the custom content route.<br /><br />Webinar/Real-time Online Training<br />Online webinars can work really well, and can work for very large groups, but realistically, attendees attention levels are not where they would be in a face to course. While watching a webinar most users will be checking their email and browsing social media. There are a number of techniques that can help maintain the audiences attention, such as doing regular interactive polls and questions. You can also add two-way video which tends to focus peoples minds, but the bandwidth required to do this often leads to other technical problems.<br /><br />There are a wide range of platforms available for lots of different providers but many are expensive and you pay based on number of attendees. In my experience, including voice over IP, that is the audio is done via the Internet as well as the slides, is a simpler option than requiring people to dial in via telephone as well. Although you also want a dial-in option for backup for the presenter should things go wrong.<br /><br />The biggest challenge is generally the technology limitations of the webinar platform being used (or rather the speed and consistency of your Internet connection that can cause these problems). If an Internet connection drops out part way through a course, particularly if it is the presenters connection, it will cause pretty severe problems! Presenting from a pre-defined and bandwidth tested location is essential, and some sort of backup connection is a great idea for really important sessions.<br /><br />One of the other advantages of webinars is the ability to record the sessions and use the videos as a learning resource for a group beyond those that attended the original webinar as well.<br /><br />Workshops/Hackathons<br />The aim of a hackathon is simply to carry out a workshop with the aim of completing some form of activity during the session and have some form of output. The term originally comes from the world of software development were developers work together to generate a new piece of code, but this can equally be applied to instructor lead, and highly interactive digital marketing workshops.<br /><br />These can work internally within organisations to help people learn the skills for creating things like videos and podcasts, as well as using digital marketing analysis tools to create reports and insights.<br /><br />The key challenge is having small enough groups to really give the attendees enough attention in order to help them build their skills. If attending yourself, make sure group sizes are small or that they are enough instructors involved. If you are organising make sure you resource appropriately.<br /><br />Conferences<br />Most of us know from experience that conferences can be a hit and miss affair because of the quality of the speakers. Many of us will have also had the awful experience of attending what is supposed to be an informative session, and ends up being a sales pitch for the company giving the session. In my opinion this is much like going on to social media and demanding that people buy your product. It just doesn�t work, its entirely the wrong forum and will do nothing but alienate potential customers.<br /><br />If you are attending a conference it�s now pretty easy to Google any speakers and take a look at their previous talks on YouTube. If you do attend and want to speak to the speaker, make sure you prepare in advance. It is likely a speaker will have a queue of people keen to speak to them after their talk (if they were any good!) and its hard for them to give everyone time when others are jostling for attention. My advice, is to present yourself briefly and provide a business card with the questions you want to ask. You can then request a response and follow up my email/social if you don�t receive a response. As a regular public speaker, I�ve always appreciated when people have done this and have always been happy to follow up afterwards.<br /><br />If you are booking an event you must focus on high quality speakers, as even a terribly organised conference can go well if the audience feel they got value from the content. Make sure you see the person speak in person ideally before you book, as videos aren�t always good at communicating how a speakers connects with an audience. Also, if you are booking speakers, make sure you organise to film the event and get permission to use the content afterwards. You should also think about doing pre and post event videos, podcast and photos to provide content fro your social media feeds and other content you may be creating.<br /><br />Seminars<br />Seminars are just short face to face sessions and can be organised around the working day. This means there is a smaller barrier for people to sign up and attend, but bear in mind if you organise any of these type of events, people start with the best intentions, and then tend to drop out last minute due to work commitments (or the fact its a sunny day and the pub is more appealing than your session!). In my experience a 50% drop our rate of free events is not unusual.<br /><br />If you are planning on attending paid for seminars you may experience similar problems, as many commercial organisers struggle to get enough paying customers on short events and very often end up cancelling events due to low numbers. Some of the best short sessions are put on by the larger digital marketing service providers for free as part of their marketing efforts, and these can be well worth attending for the content and networking opportunities. Think about companies like social media monitoring services, agencies, Email Service Providers,etc as many of these have extensive content marketing plans which include physical events.<br /><br />Informal Learning<br />The next range of learning techniques are what we would describe as �informal� learning. Informal learning refers to the various sources of content we can access that help keep us up to date and informed of the latest trends, tools and market insights. We�ll also look at some specific tools that can help us filter and select the best content.<br /><br />Podcasts<br />We love podcasts, but we would because we publish one of iTunes most popular business podcasts! However, by running the Digital Marketing Podcast for many years we have learnt by trial and error what works and what doesn�t. If you are planning on creating your own podcast you can see our Podcasting Success Factors Infographic.<br /><br />From a learning perspective though, Podcasts are fantastic as people listen for extended periods of time (generally at least 30 minutes) and don�t listen when sitting in front of their computer, but rather on a mobile device when travelling. This lends itself to a particular learning environment you don�t really get anywhere else.<br /><br />There are many places you can find education podcasts, but the iTunes Podcast App is a great place to start for Apple users and take a look at Stitcher radio whatever platform you are on. You can also create internal podcasts (just an audio file) and host on your own intranet fairly easily using sound editing software.<br /><br />Video<br />Video learning is a fantastic option as it suits the learning style of many people that find it hard to absorb new knowledge via reading content. However it has its own challenges from both a learners and a providers point of view. First of all, from a learner looking for quality content around digital marketing, finding the good stuff can be tricky. One of the disadvantages of YouTube is the shear volume of education content, and much of it is not great. Once you find a good video provider, make sure you subscribe to their channel so you always find their content again in the future. The other disadvantage of using YouTube for learning content is that you can�t download content for later viewing (although the new YouTube Red allows you to do just that, but its only available in limited countries currently).<br /><br />Another great source of video content for digital marketing knowledge is the video provider by the major service providers. People like Adobe, Moz and Google provide a whole range of educational video content that you see via YouTube, but you can also download from their websites for later viewing in many cases as well. You�ll notice that Moz offer the videos from their annual conference for sale, to allow people that couldn�t attend in person to still get value from the content. Even those these videos are not cheap, I download them every year and its one of the most valuable forms of learning I�ve come across.<br /><br />If you are looking to create video to help upskill your team, YouTube is a good place to start and you may find our Guide to Creating a YouTube Channel useful.<br /><br />Blogs<br />The explosion of content marketing has lead to a truly huge amount of blog content, and much like everything online, the quality is variable. My advice for using blogs effectively for learning is to use a filtering tool tat will bring all of the most relevant blog posts into once place where you can read them all without having to jump from one blog to the next. My favourite tool for doing this filtering and proving an interface to read all your blogs in one place is feedly.com and you can find learn more in our Video Guide to Content Curation Tools.<br /><br />Another very easy way of staying up to date with key blogs and industry news is to use Twitter for that purpose. I follow around 200 digital marketing influencers and bloggers, and their Tweets point me to their latest blog posts and news. If you are already using Twitter for other purposes or you want to group the accounts you follow on Twitter, you can use the Twitter Lists functionality. Using Twitter is a simple way of staying up to date, and allows you to dip in and out of the latest news when it suits you.<br /><br />ebooks<br />There is no shortage of digital marketing books, but one of the major problems with using these books for improving digital marketing skills, is actually how the publishing industry works. Most books take a least six months from being written to actual being published by the publisher. Six months is an eternity in digital marketing terms, and much of the detail can become out of date. However publishing time for ebook are getting better and many very good authors are also self-publishing, so take a look at those Amazon reviews and get reading.<br /><br />The other challenge is that book aren�t bite size, but they do suit different ways of learning. They are also excellent for learning in different environments, but they do require commitment. One technique that I have seen work well is to have a form of educational book club. Agree with a group, maybe even online, to all read a particular book or book chapter, and then get together to discuss and debate your understanding.<br /><br />Blended Learning � Bringing it all Together<br />As we have seen there are many different approaches to improving and keeping digital skills up to date, wether its for you or your team. However, no one approach will do all things for all people. For this reason the idea of �blended learning� is very important. Blended learning is the idea of using a range of different learning formats and styles to suit each of your learners, and match the practicalities of their the learning environment and organisational challenges.<br /><br />For many of our clients we use a combination of classroom based learning, a digital marketing elearning library and then a range of supporting informal learning resources like podcasts, videos and blogs.<br /><br />I personally stay up to date by using a combination of videos I can download to my iPad and watch when I travel, podcasts, blog posts filtered via Twitter and ebooks.<br /><br />Different channels suit different people at different times. Therefore if you are providing training, doing so across range of formats can help you be more effective. You are also going to need to sign-post this content, and we have found that by distributing regular emails to distinct groups of learners, with content matching their particular learning needs, we can achieve very high levels of engagement.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-24791675937599835562018-06-19T05:55:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:05.252-07:00Digital Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step GuideDigital marketing. Just another one of those new, fancy buzzwords you should use to sound smart in meetings or is it the real deal?<br /><br />Maybe a better question is: What is it?<br /><br />This digital marketing guide will show you what�s what.<br /><br />First popularized as a term in the early 2000�s, digital marketing has actually been around much longer.<br /><br />Like, WAY longer. About 100 years longer, to be exact.<br /><br />Here�s a pic of the first digital marketer in history:<br /><br />gulielmo marconi<br />(Image source: Wikipedia)<br /><br />His name: Guglielmo Marconi.<br /><br />What? Marconi?<br /><br />Yup. In 1896 he was the first human to demonstrate a, �public transmission of wireless signals.�<br /><br />This dude invented the radio.<br /><br />Shortly after his little demonstration in England, morse signals were transmitted across open water.<br /><br />And, while it would take another 10 years for the radio to reach the general public, it sure didn�t take the creators long to realize they could use it to sell stuff.<br /><br />The first live broadcast was from an opera performance at the Met and guess what people did after it?<br /><br />They bought show tickets!<br /><br />Digital marketing strategy was born.<br /><br />I bet you�re surprised. I didn�t mention smartphones, apps, Facebook ads or blogs at all.<br /><br />That�s because digital marketing has nothing to do with the internet.<br /><br />Definition<br />As usual, Wikipedia does a crappy job at explaining: Digital marketing is an umbrella term for the targeted, measurable and interactive marketing of products or services using�<br /><br />Ugh!<br /><br />I want an easy definition that I can remember! Here�s one: Digital marketing is any form of marketing products or services that involves electronic devices.<br /><br />That�s the reason it has been around for decades (because electronics have) and why it doesn�t necessarily have anything to do with content marketing, Google ads, social media or retargeting.<br /><br />Digital marketing can be done both online and offline.<br /><br />And, both kinds matter for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.<br /><br />Why digital marketing matters<br />Remember billboards?<br /><br />I do.<br /><br />As a young kid in California, my experiences from the back seat of our car mostly alternated between: �Mom, when are we there?� and �Uh, look, McDonalds, can we go?�, whenever one of those 10 foot billboards popped up on the side of the road.<br /><br />Growing up with Indian parents, the answer to both of those would, most times, be the same: �Not yet.�<br /><br />Sometimes, big brands would even start a billboard war, like this one between Audi and BMW, which got quite a few laughs:<br /><br />owned<br />(Image source: BMW blog)<br /><br />In 2015, a ton of my clients still spent hundreds of millions of dollars on billboard advertising.<br /><br />Unfortunately or fortunately, it�s dead.<br /><br />The reason why billboards, like the ones above, die, is perfectly illustrated in a single picture of a Volvo.<br /><br />Because, frankly, the future of driving will look like this:<br /><br />volvo<br />(Image source: Dullonet)<br /><br />Not a single passenger will spend their time looking at the road.<br /><br />Do me a favor, the next time you drive and are giving a friend a ride, take a peek at the passenger seat.<br /><br />Just for a second.<br /><br />Even now, chances are they�ll be looking at their phone.<br /><br />Heck, in a world where 9% of all drivers are on the phone one way or the other (texting or calling), at any given moment during daylight hours, how can we think billboards have a future?<br /><br />If not even the driver is looking at the road any more, who�s supposed to see those advertisements?<br /><br />And, that�s not even considering self-driving cars, on which both Apple and Google are working (you know it�s going to happen).<br /><br />Elon Musk suggests that they�ll be here around 2020.&nbsp; That�s in only a few years.<br /><br />That means you don�t have much time to figure out this digital marketing stuff before you can power down your old school printing press and close up shop.<br /><br />The share of people spending more time using electronic devices is only going up from here.<br /><br />With Americans spending 11+ hours on electronic devices, every single day, there�s not much left. That is, until we spend ALL of our time in the digital world.<br /><br />And, while yes, online marketing is the reason that 25 year olds can now sit in their living room and earn 2 million dollars a year playing video games, offline marketing still has its place.<br /><br />Let�s take a helicopter and circle around to get an overview.<br /><br />Overview<br />The 2 main pillars of digital marketing are online marketing and offline marketing. That said, since I�ll talk about online marketing in a separate guide, I�ll only mention the different areas of online marketing here, for the sake of completeness.<br /><br />The 7 big categories of online marketing are:<br /><br />Search engine optimization (SEO)<br />Search engine marketing (SEM)<br />Content marketing<br />Social Media Marketing (SMM)<br />Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)<br />Affiliate marketing<br />Email marketing<br />Unbounce created a great infographic that sums up all kinds of online marketing in one neat chart.<br /><br />noob guide<br />(Image source: Unbounce)<br /><br />The beginner�s guide to online marketing, on Quick Sprout, is a great place to get started.<br /><br />Okay, that said, what other digital marketing is there? There�s plenty, actually.<br /><br />Here are the 4 big categories of digital offline marketing.<br /><br />First, there�s what I call enhanced offline marketing. This is a form of marketing that is entirely offline, but enhanced with electronic devices.<br /><br />For example, if your restaurant uses iPads for your customers to create their orders on, then the offline experience of say, eating Thai food, is enhanced with this electronic device.<br /><br />People have been using digital media to enhance their marketing for decades (you�ve only forgotten in what ways, as you�ll see).<br /><br />digital media<br />(Image source: San Diego Tribune)<br /><br />Next, there�s radio marketing. The next time you hear an annoying, over-enthusiastic car dealer shout every word of his or her commercial, thank Mr. Marconi.<br /><br />Of course, we can�t forget television marketing. TV ads have been around for more than half a century (and since 1953 also in color, nationwide � Yes, there was a time before color TV).<br /><br />Finally, the biggest and fastest growing area of offline marketing, with admittedly also a lot of flops, busts and failures: phone marketing.<br /><br />Let�s look at the 4 areas in more detail.<br /><br />Enhanced offline marketing<br />What�s the difference between a billboard somewhere in the desert of Arizona and a billboard in New York City�s Times Square?<br /><br />The size? The product?<br /><br />3 letters: LED. Light emitting diodes.<br /><br />All of the billboards in Times Square are electronic!<br /><br />billboards<br />(Image source: Adweek)<br /><br />Why? Because in the desert of Arizona, no one�s competing with you for people�s attention. If you have a billboard at all, you win.<br /><br />But, in Times Square, attention is probably more valuable than anywhere else in the world. Over 330,000 people cross through it each day.<br /><br />If you want to be distracted, there�s buses, taxis, promoters shouting and then, of course, the electronic billboards.<br /><br />Some of them are even interactive, showing live feeds of the people on the square or pictures of customers.<br /><br />Renting a billboard space on Times Square, for a year, will set you back a whopping $1,000,000 to $4,000,000.<br /><br />Sounds expensive? Wait until you hear the prices for Super Bowl commercials.<br /><br />What other forms does enhanced offline marketing take?<br /><br />What do you see when you walk into an Apple Store these days?<br /><br />apple store<br />(Image source: Wikipedia)<br /><br />People leaning over iPads, Macbooks and iPhones.<br /><br />If you have any type of electronic product, any product demo is an important part of your digital marketing strategy.<br /><br />Okay, the next one�s a good one. If you remember this, you can consider yourself an extremely lucky kid:<br /><br />disc<br />(Image source: Emuparadise)<br /><br />This is a demo disc for the original PlayStation and several of these were handed out with other games or sometimes even magazines.<br /><br />It was the same with PC magazines.&nbsp; Remember when they came with CDs (and later DVDs) and you couldn�t wait to throw them into your disk drive and see what samples were on them?<br /><br />A little different than a demo, these are product samples in digital format.<br /><br />People still do this.&nbsp; Think of all the wannabe rappers or rockers in your hometown, handing out mix tapes and CDs and now probably USB sticks, to get you to listen to their music.<br /><br />Alright, time to take a look at the category of digital marketing that�s probably been around the longest.<br /><br />Radio marketing<br />Over 100 years have passed since that original first live broadcast of the opera performance at the Met and guess what � radio is still here.<br /><br />Since radio did fairly well in transitioning to the internet, it hasn�t taken as big of a hit as TV.&nbsp; And, even old school radio still matters.<br /><br />Some facts:<br /><br />Radio still reaches 85% of the US population every week<br />Listeners listen 2 hrs per day, on average<br />40% of all radio advertising expenses worldwide comes from the US<br />About half the population of the US listens to internet radio at least once a month<br />Now, while profits have shrunk, radio isn�t dead. Thanks to Pandora�s 80 million users, there are still about $4 billion in profits made each year.<br /><br />But, aside from creating a kick ass, creative radio commercial that will do well, what else is there?<br /><br />Recently, internet radio made a good move, doing what most podcasts do: advertise at the beginning of shows.<br /><br />If you host a show revolving around a certain topic, like coaching, you can plug programs and products in, right before and at the end of the show.<br /><br />Since social media is the marketing darling these days, it should be fairly easy to find a local radio station, get on a show, be interviewed or negotiate a deal with them.<br /><br />Once you do, be sure to get some sponsorships, to make sure that you�re a prime candidate for the station and that they give you the premium slot and the best air time possible.<br /><br />In most cases, doing well on radio means being entertaining.<br /><br />Cadillac and Dairy Queen are two brands that come up with solid radio commercials on a consistent basis.<br /><br />You can listen to some examples here.<br /><br />TV marketing<br />Television marketing is such a Goliath, it�ll likely never go away. It�s also easily the industry where the most money is burned each year.<br /><br />Ever since Google Video turned into Youtube, the efficiency of TV ads has gone down rapidly.<br /><br />Who wants to watch a crappy MTV show host review a game that they have no clue about, when they can join 40 million subscribers (!) watching PewDiePie not only rock video games, but also deliver hilarious comments.<br /><br />All, free of charge, of course.<br /><br />So, why are TV commercials nearly worthless, when the average American still watches 4 hours of TV each day?<br /><br />They aren�t specific.<br /><br />TV ads are unspecific. In a world of search engines, retargeting, social media and email marketing, we are so used to being marketed around products we already care about, that we blatantly ignore everything that�s not remotely relevant to us.<br /><br />If we can even be bothered to watch a movie on TV, because it�s not yet on Netflix, a company making $5 billion in revenue annually by now, then what do we do?<br /><br />We record it and we fast forward through all of the commercials.<br /><br />We�re used to being in total control.<br /><br />Marketers have to be smarter and smoother.<br /><br />TV commercials just hit everyone across the board.<br /><br />You could see a hemorrhoid cream commercial, followed by an Oreo ad and a burger spot, all while being overweight, diabetic and 22 years old.<br /><br />Such a person would be a horrible target to be viewing these ads.&nbsp; But, with TV, you never know who you�re going to reach, only how many eyeballs you�ll get.<br /><br />So, apart from a few insomniacs who watch infomercials late at night, ensuring that Dr. Ho still sells a few of his de-compression belts, is TV advertising dead?<br /><br />Not entirely.<br /><br />There is still one type of TV ad worth running, but it�ll cost ya.<br /><br />Remember I mentioned that renting a billboard in Times Square, for a year, will set you back a million?<br /><br />A 60 second commercial aired during the Super Bowl costs $4.5 million.<br /><br />Thanks to their cross-pollinating effect, the often viral and memorable commercials still pay for themselves.<br /><br />Roughly 10% of all TV commercial-related shares on social media come from Super Bowl ads. So do about 8% of all views on Youtube that go to TV commercial videos.<br /><br />If your commercial makes it to the blacklist (commercials the network decides can�t be shown on TV), the viral effect is usually even stronger, like this one, from Carl�s Junior, that caused a lot of noise this year:<br /><br />charlotte mckinney<br />(damn you, Charlotte McKinney)<br /><br />Super Bowl commercials have the highest retention rate, as this infographic shows. Over half of the participants who were asked remembered the Budweiser �Puppy Love� commercial.<br /><br />What�s more, these commercials become online assets, generating millions of views over time, such as the famous Star Wars commercial by Volkswagen, which has generated 62 million views, to date.<br /><br />vw<br />(will the force be with him?)<br /><br />Sadly, the hype of the Super Bowl commercials is probably more of a remnant from a success period that�s about to fade.<br /><br />The $200 billion that companies still annually spend worldwide on TV commercials is hardly justifiable, as every 10th person in the United States has a Netflix account, with more to come.<br /><br />TV, in the form as we know it, is going to die and will make way for the more custom-tailored experiences we are already getting used to.<br /><br />So, if you do plan on doing offline digital marketing, I�d suggest that you spend your time and money focusing on a marketing platform or channel of the future.<br /><br />Like this one.<br /><br />Phone marketing<br />We still don�t realize this or give it nearly enough credit.<br /><br />Smartphones are killing it.<br /><br />Now, over 80% of internet users own a smartphone and, in 2014, we crossed the tipping point where more people are accessing the internet from their phone than via a desktop PC or laptop.<br /><br />Mobile marketing is here, and, in 2016, the amount spent on mobile ads will first exceed the amount spent on desktop ads.<br /><br />In 2020, there will be as much money spent on mobile ads as there is now spent on TV advertising.&nbsp; How�s that for fast growth?<br /><br />But, before we look at the type of phone marketing that you can do for smartphone users with an internet connection, let�s look at some offline ways to market your products.<br /><br />There are 2 apps that are grossly underestimated, yet they are on every phone, smart or not:<br /><br />Calling and texting.<br /><br />Cold calling is the act of calling a person with no prior contact and trying to sell them something.<br /><br />While at roughly 3 sales per day (marketers call 52 people a day, on average, with about 17 calls until they find a buyer), it doesn�t have the scalability of social media or email, it�s still a valid approach to marketing.<br /><br />The tactic works, but doesn�t scale very well when selling to end customers (B2C) and making contact before trying to sell helps to close the deal (especially in B2B, which is all about connections).<br /><br />What works better is marketing via texting, an �app� that is also available on each and every single phone out there.<br /><br />Online or offline, a text message is almost a guaranteed read.<br /><br />While the MMS obviously tanked after the web became available and mobile data usage costs so little, texts are still a good way to reach people and bring value in 160 characters or less.<br /><br />While you should definitely get permission first, for example, in the form of having your customers text a certain word to a phone number, there are several providers that offer text marketing at scale.<br /><br />Here are some examples of how you can leverage text message marketing:<br /><br />pizza<br />(Image source: Tatango)<br /><br />Special deals, coupons and discounts are a great way for restaurants to get additional customers and turn walk-ins into regulars.<br /><br />You can see more examples of successful restaurant text messaging campaigns here.<br /><br />DVD rental service, Red Box, pulled off a successful campaign as well. They let their customers text DEALS to 727272 in exchange for a gamble.<br /><br />They would receive a random discount on their next rental, between $0.10 and $1.50.<br /><br />Over only 10 days, they connected with 400,000 customers and generated over 1.5 million text messages.<br /><br />Using text reminders as customer service can also enhance your mobile marketing, like Walmart does. They alert customers when their prescription is ready for pickup. To date, they�ve sent over 1 billion text reminders.<br /><br />Another option is to create a loyalty program, where your customers can trade points collected in an app or when paying via their phone. Only 13% of retailers have one, so it�s an option that can help you to stand out.<br /><br />Since 98% of all text messages are opened, and 90% of them are opened within 3 minutes of arrival, text messages are also a great opportunity to promote a giveaway that you�re doing.<br /><br />Using a tool, like Heyo, you can easily create a giveaway that�s optimized for mobile and works well on Facebook and other social media platforms, like this one:<br /><br />countdown<br />(Source: Facebook)<br /><br />However, there is one area of mobile marketing that you should probably avoid: QR codes.<br /><br />These bar code-like images used to pop up everywhere, a few years ago and while some marketers still swear by them, they�re pretty much dead.<br /><br />qr code<br />(Sample QR code via Wikipedia)<br /><br />Back in 2011, only about 6% of mobile phone users in the US had scanned a QR code, all year.&nbsp; And, by 2012, 97% of consumers didn�t even know what a QR code was.<br /><br />While I can�t be 100% sure about why they weren�t the big hit some wanted them to be, I suspect it�s because the system was too complex.<br /><br />To scan a QR code you�d always have to download a specific app, like Barcoo.<br /><br />Then, the corresponding content would open within the app, which was often not optimized for mobile.<br /><br />Big brands also didn�t respect the context of QR codes, putting them in very unfortunate places, like subway stations with no cell reception or on TV commercials, where they were only visible for a few seconds.<br /><br />So, don�t waste your time with QR codes, your time and money is best spent elsewhere.<br /><br />Conclusion<br />That�s the scoop on digital marketing. As you can see, the internet is, by far, not the only place for marketers to gather success, even today.<br /><br />Of course, no one can afford to miss out on the opportunities of the web and, eventually, every marketer will have to master online marketing.<br /><br />But, employing a few of these offline marketing tactics can help you to not put all of your eggs into one basket and diversify your lead generation beyond social media, content marketing and the like.<br /><br />Here�s the breakdown of digital marketing again:<br /><br />Online marketing<br /><br />Search engine optimization (SEO)<br />Search engine marketing (SEM)<br />Content marketing<br />Social Media Marketing (SMM)<br />Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)<br />Affiliate marketing<br />Email marketing<br />Offline marketing<br /><br />Enhanced offline marketing<br />Electronic billboards<br />Digital product demos<br />Digital product samples<br />Radio marketing<br />Radio commercials<br />Show sponsoring<br />TV marketing<br />TV commercials<br />Tele-shopping<br />Super Bowl commercials<br />Phone marketing<br />Cold calling<br />Text message marketing (giveaways, coupons, loyalty programs)<br />QR codes<br />I hope this guide expanded your view a bit and showed you that digital marketing is more than Facebook ads and social media blasts.<br /><br />Will you use any of these tactics in your business?<br /><br />Which of these do you remember from back in the day.&nbsp; Have I missed any?<br /><br />Let me know your biggest takeaways in the comments.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-39797136560888227092018-06-19T05:54:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:05.725-07:0010 Tips on How To Kick-Start Your Digital Marketing CareerIf you�re looking to break into the digital marketing industry, there�s no better time than now. According to the government, the digital economy is growing 10 times faster than the traditional economy which will result in a skills gap of 900,000 vacancies by 2015.<br /><br />We�ve compiled our top tips for aspiring digital marketers who wish to kick-start their digital marketing career today.<br /><br />?1) Eagerness to learn<br />The digital marketing industry is both fast growing and incredibly competitive. It�s easy for businesses to differentiate between candidates who have the willingness to learn, and who are along for the ride. This industry requires passion and a desire to succeed.<br /><br />2) Stay Updated<br />You need to keep on top of industry news by following major digital marketing sites and influential people on social media. As the major players such as Google, Facebook and Twitter regularly tweak their paid advertising platforms and algorithms, you�re in for a wild ride if you don�t keep on top of the latest changes.<br /><br />Here�s some recommendations on websites to get started -<br /><br />SEO � Moz, Distilled, SEOGadget, Search Engine Land<br /><br />PPC � PPC Hero, Search Engine Land<br /><br />Social Media � Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today<br /><br />Content � Hubspot<br /><br />3) Networking<br />Surround yourself with people more talented than yourself. The people you meet will be your ongoing support network when you run into problems, as well as help to open doors to opportunities you might not have otherwise found.<br /><br />Attend industry meetups and conferences in your area to nurture relationships with other digital marketers and enhance your skill set through in-depth workshops and presentations.<br /><br />4) Personal Projects<br />Try out your own ideas and don�t just treat industry leaders� opinions as gospel. Everything isn�t always black and white in the digital marketing industry with many grey areas between best practice and what can actually get results for a business.<br /><br />Every digital marketer should have personal projects to test out theories, try their hand at multiple disciplines (SEO, PPC, Social Media, Content Marketing etc.) and be able to take accountability for the success or failure of a project.<br /><br />Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing | 10 Tips on How To Kick-Start Your Digital Marketing Career<br />5) Learn the terminology<br />&nbsp;Digital marketers needs to be comfortable with acronyms such as PPC, SEM and SEO. They are all very different terms with a misunderstanding of them being a clear sign that you have a beginner�s skill set and need further training. The ability to analyse digital marketing campaigns and understand what elements worked or not is dependent on your ability to understand industry jargon.<br /><br />6) Build your personal brand<br />Fancy yourself as a digital marketing hotshot but you have no visible online presence? If you want to show to an employer that you can build their company�s visibility then you need to show that you can firstly build your own personal brand.<br /><br />A strong online presence could potentially be the deciding factor between two candidates who have applied for the same position.<br /><br />7) T-Shaped Marketer<br />As a term commonly used by Rand Fishkin of Moz, it refers to having a basic understanding of multiple marketing disciplines but specializing in one or two particular skills.<br /><br />It�s not uncommon for companies to find candidates with a broad digital marketing skill set to be a valuable asset as there�s considerable cross over between the different channels. It will also make you better equipped for choosing a more specific path of focus that you can specialize in.<br /><br />T-Shaped Marketer | 10 Tips on How To Kick-Start Your Digital Marketing Career<br />8) Get Nerdy<br />Digital marketing can often be perceived to be quite glamorous, but truth be told it�s often more technical and data driven than we would care to admit. You won�t be developing websites from scratch but you will be communicating your marketing strategy to a team of developers or designers who have a responsibility for incorporating your recommendations.<br /><br />A basic knowledge of HTML and graphic design would help to make you stand out among the less technically minded candidates.<br /><br />9) Metrics are King<br />Do you know your CPC from your CPA? If you want to set yourself apart in an interview, talk about the return on ad spend for a campaign you�ve run yourself. It�s easy to talk about an exciting creative concept you�ve helped to develop but the fact remains�money talks.<br /><br />You really need to understand how each marketing channel has performed and what the key learnings have been.<br /><br />10) Certification<br />If you really want to stand out from your peers in the industry, completing a certified digital marketing course will help. One of the issues facing the digital marketing industry is that there are no barriers to entry, meaning that anyone with a loose grasp of industry terminology can potentially get a position in a company.<br /><br />As this industry matures, recruiters are becoming more savvy about what differentiates a candidate that can talk the talk, but maybe will be a costly mistake for the company.Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-26858556398378943642018-06-19T05:46:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:06.176-07:006 Free Online Classes for Digital-Marketing Beginners<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">A business needs to have a strong online presence these days if its leaders want&nbsp;to be competitive -- there is no way around that rule. Yet, not every startup and small business can afford to hire a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketdominationmedia.com/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">digital marketing agency</a>.&nbsp;So, how can business owners compete with little to no budget?</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">The answer is self-education.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Multiple&nbsp;online courses are available to teach and explain the many different components of digital marketing, and some of them are completely free. Here are six free courses from the online education marketplace&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Udemy</a>&nbsp;that can help beginners understand online marketing.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">1. Creating a website using WordPress&nbsp;</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">To have an online presence, a business must have a website. WordPress is one of the easiest blogging and content management systems to learn, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/how-to-create-a-website-using-wordpress-step-by-step/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">this course</a>, within a couple of hours, will teach you the fundamentals for publishing a fully functional website.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Interestingly, this course doesn�t touch on HTML or other coding programs, but that�s the beauty of WordPress -- it�s so simple to use and doesn�t require coding or other technical knowledge to create a website for your business.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">For your new business with a limited budget, this tutorial can help you launch a website that fills the void until your budget allows for a fully customized, professional website to be developed.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">2. SEO training course, by Moz</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">What is SEO?&nbsp;That�s a question many business owners have, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/whiteboard-seo/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">this SEO training course by Moz</a>&nbsp;is perfect for those who need a very basic introduction to the world of search engine optimization.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">There are several on-page and off-page components of SEO, and this course does a good job of breaking them down into very easy-to-digest explanations. If you already have a basic understanding of SEO, this course might seem a little watered down -- it�s designed specifically for those with no prior knowledge or experience.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">3. Social media marketing for beginners&nbsp;</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Social media is the driving force today behind many businesses, small to large, and it�s a digital marketing component that you need to be deeply invested in if you want to thrive online.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"><a href="https://www.udemy.com/social-media-marketing-for-beginners/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">This course</a>&nbsp;is perfect for those new to online marketing who want to learn what makes up a successful social media marketing effort. Students will learn why social media is such an important piece of the marketing puzzle, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that tend to plague beginners.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">4. A Google Analytics course for beginners</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Google Analytics is one of the most insightful tools, providing valuable feedback about your online marketing efforts which can help you eliminate wasted spend and scale winning campaigns. At first look, this tool can seem overwhelming, but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-google-analytics-course-for-beginners/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">this Google Analytics course</a>&nbsp;is a great way for beginners to become acquainted with its ins and outs.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Someone with no prior Google Analytics knowledge can learn how to set it up on his or her website, read and analyze the many reporting options available and learn how to set up and understand conversion goals. Google Analytics is a must-use tool for any online business, making this course a must-have for anyone new to online marketing.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">5. Creating high-quality blog content&nbsp;</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Having a blog alone doesn�t guarantee that a business will enjoy&nbsp;marketing success. After all, everyone has a blog these days. That makes it all the more important that you create quality content. You have to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;value to your readers if you expect to convert them into brand supporters and customers.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">This&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/how-to-create-high-quality-blog-content-that-gets-shared/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">free course</a>&nbsp;dives into what it takes to create quality content that generates organic website traffic, email list subscribers and customers. It also lays out what makes content thrive on social media and how to create successful&nbsp;content on a consistent basis. Other tips, like how to source free images for your blog posts, are valuable tidbits that provide value to beginners.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: Roboto, HelveticaNeue-Light, &quot;Helvetica Neue Light&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.375rem; line-height: 28.6px; margin: 2rem 0px 0.5rem;">6. Use Google to search like a&nbsp;professional</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">In order to fully understand how online marketing works, you need to know how Google�s search engine works.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.udemy.com/google-search-advance-search-the-web-as-professional/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #23b5ba; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">This course</a>&nbsp;explains how to use Google to find the most relevant information pertaining to your search queries.&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #212121; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.75rem;">Many small business owners aren�t up to speed with Google, and this is the perfect soft introduction for those that aren't yet proficient or are even computer illiterate. With little to no computer or Internet experience, owners learn how Google works -- a must before they attempt to use it in their marketing endeavors.&nbsp;</div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-24391071205130080032018-06-19T05:45:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:06.630-07:00Free Online Digital Marketing Course <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">The&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">free online digital marketing course</span>&nbsp;offered by Shaw Academy is an excellent way to acquire the skills you need to be a digital marketer. The course provides an opportunity for the students to join the educator, and fellow students from all over the world, and interact in real time and ask the educator questions during the live digital marketing classes.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">With these live online sessions, students are able to login to the webinar at a particular time and the educator performs the lessons by delivering the course material in an engaging manner. The&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">free online marketing courses</span>&nbsp;is available for you now..</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">Once a student has achieved their success by completing the free online foundation digital marketing course, the students can progress to the advanced online marketing course and receive their diploma in digital marketing.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">The&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">free digital marketing course,</span>&nbsp;which is also known as the foundation course, will include everything that one should know to understand the basics of digital marketing. On this course you will learn how to answer the essential question of who is your customer? Then we will teach you how capture your audience, we will show you how to nurture you leads and finally how to turn your leads into paying customers. We must remember not all leads are buyers, however, all buyers start as leads. Ultimately, we will show you how to generate more leads and convert them in higher numbers. Digital marketing is full of opportunities and an amzazing space to be involved in. Are you looking to learn how to penetrate into this exciting industry? Would you like an exponential growth in revenue? Then this course is for you!</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">The advanced course, known as the&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing</span>&nbsp;seeks to progressively improve your knowledge by growing on the basic principles of digital marketing. On the advanced course we will teach you how to implement, in a very practical way, the theory we cover on the foundation course. We will show you the very important component of how to identify your buyer. Then we will teach you how to connect to your audience through digital advertising, setting up lucrative affiliate partnerships and optimizing your website for the search engines - allowing your buyers to find you. We also show you how to create incredible content that you can put in front of your audience, in the right place and at the right time. Then we will teach you how to analyse your data, so you can make informed marketing decisions and enjoy continuous success.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;">Learning Digital Marketing</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">This is an exciting space to be involved in, its ever changing, and evolving all the time. We have seen exponential growth in the digital space over the last decade and there is no signs of it slowing down. It�s not only digital marketing but marketing in a digital world. This industry is full of opportunities. In the foundation course we will cover what digital marketing is all about, then it�s about accelerating your knowledge on the advanced course and understanding how to implement the theory in a practical way. In the digital marketing industry there is a serious skills gap in the market, meaning there are not enough people with the correct skills to fill the demand for jobs. Learning these skills will allow you to leverage your knowledge and position yourself for success in this area.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;">Online Digital Marketing Courses</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">With the rise of the digital world we have the opportunity to bring students and educators together in one space. There is an endless amount of information regarding digital marketing online, it�s easy to get lost in the noise. We, at Shaw Academy, are experts at bringing you the information you need to know in an easy to understand manner, and teaching how to implement this information in a practical way. This will lead to your success. This new phenomena of live online education allows for flexible learning which allows you to either attend live or watch recordings of the live lessons in your own time. On both the foundation course and advanced you have real, passionate and knowledge people who are invested in your success in this ever evolving space.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;">Importance of Digital Marketing</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">We live in a digital world now and digital marketing penetrates almost every industry. We have seen an incredible growth in this space and businesses have enjoyed the success that digital marketing can bring. In the world today, with data and analytics, we can accurately measure what is working and what is not. We now have measurable metrics for our efforts. Now we can capture a wide global audience and build Incredible content that the audience wants to invest in and put that in front of our exact audience. Most importantly, the numbers don't lie, so we can use our data to make informed decisions and convert our audience in high numbers and have exponential growth in revenue. If you want to learn how to do this, then join the Shaw Academy digital marketing course and start on your path of success.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;">Digital Marketing Objectives</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">For any marketing strategy, the key to success is to have a clear road map and a path to follow. You need to consider the following aspects while defining your digital marketing objectives:</div><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-type: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot;, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">Do I know who my customer is?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot;, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">How can I reach my customer?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot;, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">What will it cost me to acquire my lead flow?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot;, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 2em;">What profit do I stand to make?</li></ul><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">Why are we doing all this work, creating content, developing advertising campaigns and building partnerships? Why are we putting so much energy and resources into digital marketing? We do this because we have the opportunity to generate a phenomenal Return on Investment (ROI).</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">Your digital marketing plan should take into account the entire customer journey. Right from the time a customer is aware of your brand and visits your website, until the final purchase or positive desired action. The complete cycle can be summed up as awareness, acquisition and conversion. Get started now with Shaw Academy so you can leverage the opportunities that are available to you in this amazing space.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;">Digital Marketing Framework</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">Everything is measurable with digital marketing and any business can get the advantage they want and enjoy the success that the digital space has to offer. They simply need to think �outside-the-box� and explore what others have not. If you want to build a brand you need to be focussed, unique and enthusiastic. That�s the trick!</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">Businesses which fail to evolve from changing marketing scenarios and trends are at a great risk of becoming extinct sooner rather than later.</div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2e74b5; display: inline-block; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px; padding: 0.7em 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Free Online Marketing Course at Shaw Academy</h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">What differentiates Shaw Academy from other e-learning organizations?</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">We are live! Other online educators take after a recorded library model. In this model, pre-recorded, pre-composed and pre-prepared material is given to students to learn on their own after joining the course.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">What's the problem with this model?</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">You don't have a specialist to guide and coach you through your journey of learning. There is nobody to supervise your education and let you know where you are exceed expectations and where you may need to improve.</div><span style="background-color: white; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #707070; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px;">The Shaw Academy has educated more than 1 million successful students globally. We deliver education in an affordable, practical and accessible way to the world. The Shaw Academy is proud to say that we are the largest live educator on the planet. Our courses are taught in a practical way where students achieve the skill set that they require to actually become digital marketers. Now you can go and take your free online marketing course, over a progression of live online classes, where you will have a specialist directly communicating with and assisting you through your learning process. The educators are genuine individuals who will engage with you at the highest possible level.. They are here to coach you and help you to achieve your goals. To gain your education and new skills from our knowledgeable educators, all you need is a PC and an internet connection. You can enjoy our online courses right from the comfort of your home. Join Shaw Academy with this free online course and become the digital marketer that you have always wanted to be.</div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6840028815875103655.post-20215781276351218542018-06-19T05:44:00.000-07:002018-09-24T09:28:07.085-07:00The Top 5 Free Online Courses for Digital Marketers<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="4f93" name="4f93" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 38px;">Which digital marketing course should you take to boost your marketing skills, absolutely free of charge?</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="3484" name="3484" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">Digital marketing skills are critical not only to those actually working in the field but also to entrepreneurs. Even if you�re past your very early startup days and have a marketing team, the&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/5-entrepreneurs-who-ignored-their-advisors-and-became-wildly-rich.html" href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/5-entrepreneurs-who-ignored-their-advisors-and-became-wildly-rich.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">most successful founders</a>&nbsp;have a working knowledge of each aspect of the business and can provide knowledgeable oversight of digital marketing campaigns.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5865" name="5865" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">Check out these five top free online courses to build your digital marketing skills:</div><h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="5e2f" name="5e2f" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans&quot;, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.012em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.63px;">1.&nbsp;<span class="markup--quote markup--h4-quote is-other" data-creator-ids="anon" name="anon_15b9f15bbcc2" style="background-color: transparent !important; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(233, 253, 240), rgb(233, 253, 240)); background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 36px; cursor: pointer; transition: background-color 0.2s;">Google Online Marketing Challenge</span></h4><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" id="8425" name="8425" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 6px;">Over the past 8 years, more than 100,000 people from over 100 countries have participated in&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/" href="https://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Google�s Online Marketing Challenge</a>. It�s an online course with modules covering introductory digital marketing, search engine marketing, search advertising, display advertising, mobile, social, analytics, and video, making it one of the more comprehensive courses for beginners. However, it�s also unique in that Google gives learners a $250 AdWords budget to use over a three-week period, to&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/9-important-reasons-you-need-to-use-facebook-ads-right-now-first-90-days.html" href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/9-important-reasons-you-need-to-use-facebook-ads-right-now-first-90-days.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">run an online advertising campaign</a>for a business or not-for-profit. The most successful learners can even win prizes from Google.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="f347" name="f347" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">If you�re looking for a free online digital marketing course with a competitive angle and a real-world experience element, this is a great option.</div><h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="65e3" name="65e3" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans&quot;, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.012em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.63px;">2. WordStream�s PPC University</h4><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" id="740a" name="740a" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 6px;"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.wordstream.com/learn" href="http://www.wordstream.com/learn" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">PPC University</a>&nbsp;is a totally free online learning resource created by my own company, WordStream, to help build your PPC and digital marketing skills. We have access to thousands of accounts spending billions of dollars on PPC advertising, and over the years consistently found that&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.wordstream.com/press/smb-ppc-research" href="http://www.wordstream.com/press/smb-ppc-research" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">small to medium-size businesses struggled to manage their accounts</a>&nbsp;in a way that was cost effective and earned them the best results. Three streams offer lessons for beginning to advanced users, with additional modules for social advertising.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="d515" name="d515" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">You can also access a number of webinars and white papers to enhance your digital marketing education, and best of all, everything�s mobile-friendly so you can learn on the go, whenever you have time!</div><h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="252f" name="252f" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans&quot;, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.012em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.63px;">3. Social Media Quickstarter Digital Marketing Course</h4><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" id="d924" name="d924" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 6px;">Constant Contact�s&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://blogs.constantcontact.com/social-media-quickstarter/" href="http://blogs.constantcontact.com/social-media-quickstarter/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Social Media Quickstarter&nbsp;</a>emphasizes opportunities to integrate email with social media marketing, to maximize the impact of both channels. In a series of step-by-step lessons, learners can study digital marketing tactics for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, blogging, and online listings and reviews sites. The way the courses are structured makes them perfect for&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/3-times-when-inbound-marketing-really-sucks.html" href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/3-times-when-inbound-marketing-really-sucks.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">beginner-level marketers</a>, with components such as glossaries and how-to guides, combined with practical examples of the lessons at hand in action.</div><h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="2941" name="2941" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans&quot;, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.012em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.63px;">4. Inbound Digital Marketing Course Plus Official Certification</h4><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" id="20d7" name="20d7" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 6px;">HubSpot Academy offers an incredibly comprehensive digital marketing course that currently has&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.udemy.com/inbound-marketing-course/" href="https://www.udemy.com/inbound-marketing-course/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">more than 3,000 students participating at</a>&nbsp;Udemy. Over 4.5 hours of instruction in 38 lectures are included in the low, low course price of completely free.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="09bc" name="09bc" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">Participants will learn the basics of inbound marketing, SEO, landing pages, blogging, conversion optimization, lead nurturing, and email marketing, as well as how they all work together for a cohesive and more effective inbound marketing strategy. After the certification exam, graduates receive a badge for their r�sum� or LinkedIn profile to show they�ve&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/20-digital-marketing-experts-to-follow-on-twitter.html" href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/20-digital-marketing-experts-to-follow-on-twitter.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">expanded their marketing skills</a>&nbsp;with HubSpot Academy.</div><h4 class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" id="1cbb" name="1cbb" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.22; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans Unicode&quot;, &quot;Lucida Sans&quot;, Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.012em; line-height: 1.22; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.63px;">5. Alison Free Diploma in E-Business</h4><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" id="b3b3" name="b3b3" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 6px;">Alison is a massive online learning community of more than six million registered users, with standards-based and certified courses offered absolutely free of charge. Developed by free online courses pioneer Mike Feerick, Alison was founded in 2007 and was the first MOOC (massive online open course) provider.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="3027" name="3027" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">Today, you can take the free digital marketing course&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-E-Business" href="https://alison.com/courses/Diploma-in-E-Business" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Diploma in E-Business</a>&nbsp;to build skills in search optimization, Google Analytics and AdWords, campaign tracking and integration, revenue metrics analysis, digital measurement, and more.</div><div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="cc96" name="cc96" style="--baseline-multiplier: 0.17; background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 1.58; margin-top: 29px;">And, of course, if you want to make yourself truly invaluable to any organization (including your own startup),&nbsp;<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/should-you-learn-python-c-or-ruby-to-be-a-top-coder-infographic.html" href="https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/should-you-learn-python-c-or-ruby-to-be-a-top-coder-infographic.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.54); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.68) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">you need to learn how to code</a>!</div>Arya Wirarajahttps://plus.google.com/104401211114024114727noreply@blogger.com